Crimson Red
by Just Q
Summary: When a Red Lantern named Ivan Sokolov finds himself in a world where no one knows him, not even himself, he sets out NOT to seek his lost past and just try to live normally. Problem is, he picked the worst place to live in: Hell's Kitchen. Now, as he tries his best to live in peace, he will encounter heroes, villains, ninjas and even rent! All while a mysterious cat watches him...
1. Chapter 1: Growing Pains

**A/N: Hello there. I am Just Q. So admittedly, this will be my first time writing this type of crossover. I was mainly a Ben 10 writer but I wanted to expand my horizon and not limit myself.**

**While yes, the main protagonist of this title shall be an OC, I am completely aware of the pros and cons of original characters. I promise to not make the main character too OP or a Gary Sue. I will also promise not to make the focus entirely on him as that would mitigate his supporting cast and just relegate them to being extras or accessories for him, which is insulting.**

**No pairings for now. I don't want that to hold back the story.**

**With all that said, please enjoy.**

* * *

_"With blood and rage of crimson red,_

_We fill men's souls with darkest dread,_

_And twist your minds to pain and hate,_

_We'll burn you all—that is your fate!"_

* * *

The words echoed in his head once more before his alarm started blaring loudly. In response, he reached out of his torn, blue blanket and slams his fist onto the snooze button on his digital clock, which is currently alarming at 6:50 am in a Sunday morning. But instead of simply snoozing his clock, he ends up breaking it, causing it to turn off on its own. He peeks from his blanket, slowly revealing his bleach blonde hair and blue eyes, only to see the state of his broken clock. With a sigh, he pushes his clock aside and off of his drawer near his bed, causing it to safely fall on his thick, red carpet.

"...Damn it... Gonna have to rent another one..." He spoke in a groggy voice as he pushed away his blanket to reveal his bare naked physically fit torso filled with scars on his abdomen, chest, back and his right arm.

But a very significant piece of him is what seems to be a red ring with a strange rune on it slung on his middle finger on his right hand.

He moves from his bed and gets up to reveal he also wore blue jogging pants and his feet is completely bare until he slips them into his black slippers on his carpet, just a few inches away from his clock that he unintentionally broke... but intentionally pushed off his drawer out of annoyance.

As the man yawns before stretching his arms to fully awaken himself, he moves his right leg slightly to the side, only for his foot to come into contact with something soft and furry. He stops yawning as he looks at what his foot touched to see a grayish-bluish Russian Blue cat on the carpet, sleeping.

"...You're still here?" He said to the sleeping cat, who finally opened its eyes before giving the man an annoying side eye, as if it was angry at being awoken. But instead of going back to sleep, the cat lifts its head up to fully look at the man. "What?" The man asked the cat, seemingly just as annoyed as the feline.

The cat strangely narrows his eyes at him before meowing, as if trying to say something, before getting up on all fours, shakes around to get rid of any dirt on its fur, before suddenly walking over to the man's nearby table, jumps on it then proceeds to leave the room through the window nearby.

"Every morning with you..." The man muttered under his breath as if trying to speak to the cat that had already left, before grabbing a nearby towel hanging on his chair near the table the cat had just jumped onto earlier then heading to his bathroom just to the right of his bed.

After a brief shower, he steps out of the bathroom with a towel covering everything below his waist, with him holding his boxers and his pants earlier before tossing it in the laundry basket just beside the door of his bathroom, with this new pair stacking up on his other used, dirty clothes. He takes the time to look at his nearly full laundry basket as he realizes something before saying, "I really need to get these washed."

After looking at his laundry-stencial crisis, he takes off the towel around his waist before opening a nearby closet to grab underwear, white socks, navy blue jeans, a white shirt and a navy blue jacket with a cream colored fur collar.

"This will do." He told himself as he puts on each piece of clothing one by one.

Once he's done, he looks at himself on the mirror that's part of his closet's door. From bottom to top, he eyes himself before telling himself, "...I really need better clothes."

He finally closes his closet before grabbing a nearby backpack, place the slings around his shoulders and leaves his house, closing his room door and locking it, placing the key in his pocket afterwards.

Taking a deep breath, he walks away from his door to his apartment room and heads to nearby stairs, heading down to leave through the apartment's entrance. But just before walking out, someone at the reception desk called out for his name.

"Ivan." The female receptionist said out loud to him. "Pay your rent. It's long overdue. Either you pay up now or you get evicted."

"Ugh... Whatever." Ivan, the man we have been following, responded before taking out a 20 dollar bill from his pants' left pocket and gives it to the receptionist. "Keep the change." He added as he is about to leave through the front door once more.

But the receptionist takes the cash she was handed to by Ivan before waving it around and yells out at him, saying, "Keep the change? Excuse you, your rent is 40 bucks. You didn't pay last week's rent."

"I'll pay the other half later!" Ivan yelled back before finally taking his leave.

* * *

In a little lonely store named "24/7's" downtown this early morning, a lone, old man of Chinese descent, wearing eyeglasses, is inspecting several of the store's merchandise, like some junk food comprised of several chips and popcorn, as well as soft drinks in the fridges, and some home essentials like deodorants, tissues and shaving razors.

Upon checking the "food" section on the paper of his clipboard, he hears the door to his store open signaled by a bell ringing upon the door pulling on the string connected to the bell's clapper, and causes the old man to turn and see Ivan enter, backpack on tow.

"Oh! Ivan! Glad you're here! I'm just about done checking." The old man comments to Ivan's arrival, with a very slight but still noticeable accent.

But it's something Ivan has gotten used to after working for this man for such a long time. "Glad to be here, Mr. Ling. I set my alarm earlier this time. How's Lei?" Ivan asks his boss, named Ling, or at least, his last name, as he heads to a door behind the cashier counter.

"Oh she's doing fine. It will be her recital today!" Mr. Ling responded to his worker and places his clipboard on the counter. "She kept asking for you to come but I told her you're busy."

"I'll try to come later if I have time, Mr. Ling, but you and I both know why I'm early today." Ivan replies as he comes out of the back room having discarded the clothes he wore here and replaced it with the uniform for this small little shop comprised of a white polo shirt, black pants and a blue apron with the symbol of the store, the numbers "24/7", on the belly area.

"Yes, yes. So I can come to her recital and not skip a single minute and for you to watch over the shop for me. Sorry I have to keep you busy like this." Mr. Ling replies, hands on his hips and shaking his head.

However, Ivan simply gives off a small smile to his boss and places a hand on the shoulder of the old man. "I told you, Mr. Ling. It's okay. Your family's more important. I'll watch over the shop for as long as it takes."

Mr. Ling gives his attendant a small chuckle as he takes off his glasses and gives Ivan a grateful nod. "Thank you. I owe you so much, Ivan."

"I'm always here, Mr. Ling. Better a get a move on, though. Lei might get cranky again." Ivan jokingly tells his boss.

The store owner gives off a hearty laugh, all while patting Ivan on his shoulder. "Of course, of course! I'll see you tomorrow, Ivan." The old man responded to the young man as he gives him a sweet, fatherly smile before taking his leave, causing the door to ring the bell once more.

The shop ran silent once the bell stopped ringing as Ivan watched his boss head off through the glass pane of the door. Once he sees the old man get in his car and eventually drive off back home to get dressed and take his daughter to her recital, Ivan drops his smile and takes a silent but incredibly deep sigh as he walks over behind the cashier counter with his back slouched and his face expressing his disbelief.

"I'm gonna be stuck here all day..." Ivan complained once he now knows his boss is gone.

He meant no offense to Mr. Ling, though. He owes the old man his job that he has right now and how he even got an apartment in this crappy town. Not once did Ivan ever think of badmouthing his boss. What he's mad about is the fact that it's hard to refuse a request from him, as Ivan still feels like he hasn't paid Mr. Ling back enough for all his help, so when the old man asked if he could stay and watch the shop all day, in a Sunday no less, so he could go watch his young daughter's recital at their local church as part of a choir performance, Ivan could not refuse.

He's so mad at himself for being too nice to this person who is also too nice to him, but deep inside, somehow, it felt like the right thing. At this point though, his only problem is being unable to go home early than usual. His usual shift on week days is merely in the morning, then another fellow employee of his would and take over his shift from after lunch until night. But this Sunday, he just signed himself up for a very long, whole day shift on a day no one comes to their store at all.

He can't do anything now but internally complain as he pulls up a nearby wheeled stool and sits on it, leaning on the counter as he prepares to waste the next 11 hours of his life.

The next 5 minutes of his waiting was spent in silence as he thought of several things all while giving the cash register a thousand yard stare. First, he made mental notes of when he'll have to eventually get his laundry cleaned soon. Then, he starts thinking of making list of other possible side jobs he could do once he does his shifts in the morning. He notes to himself the hypocrisy of this idea considering he was just complaining to himself earlier so he puts this idea on hold for now. Next, he began thinking of saving up to buy a radio to get some music and news reports in his room. He doesn't own a television so a cheap but functioning radio will do. He also noted to himself to also save money for a new alarm clock after had just committed his previous one to it's death by falling. And finally, pay up the rest of his rent once he gets back home so that bitch at the front desk would shut up.

He takes a deep breath once he was done taking mental notes before resting his chin on his right hand as his elbow leans on the counter. He takes another 10 seconds to wait for nothing to happen...

...until he spots his very bright, red ring on his finger from the corner of his eyes. He stops leaning on his right hand before stretching it out in front of him to look at the red ring more.

The more he stares intently at this peculiarly designed, circular band around his index finger, the more he sees how strange this rune on it looks really eery. It's shaped as two straight lines going up that eventually curve in opposite directions before continuing to go straight up. In addition to that, it has a big circle between both lines down at the bottom middle.

He's worn this strange ring for as long as he can remember in his time here in this place. He also had to learn how much this thing could help him, but he still doesn't know anything about it or how he came to be in possession of this ring.

Every time he looks at it, the more it starts to feel... vile. Like something inside is waiting to burst out at anytime, but he is just hypnotized by this ring. The longer he stares, the more it feels like he's burning up inside.

And every time he does, those "words"... The ones he always hears in his nightmares where there's nothing but a bright white light around him and the words echoed in his mind.

_With blood and rage of crimson red,_

_We fill men's souls with darkest dread,_

_And twist your minds to pain and hate,_

_We'll burn you all—_

_That _

_is_

_your _

**_FATE!_**

***CLING!***

He was snapped out of his trance when the bell to the store rings, signifying that someone came in. He felt like he had been staring at his ring for almost a lifetime, but one look at the shop's own wall clock and sees that he had only been doing it only for a whole minute. He shakes his head to be rid of his headache as he stands up from his stool to see that his new customers are two, teenage boys wearing sweaters, one green and one blue, and they're currently looking around the store. The green sweater wearing kid is wearing a green beanie on his head to match the rest of his get-up.

The one in blue looks at several magazines at a rack right beside the doorway while the one in green starts looking around at the rest of the shop. For simplicity, he made mental notes to himself to call the one in blue simply as "Blue" and the one in green, is of course, "Green".

Blue continues looking at the magazines and found a comic book. From the cover alone and the colors used, Ivan knew what the comic book was since his long time working here. Something called "Rage of the Reds by Geoff Johns". Ivan has never read it himself but apparently it's one of the best selling ones in this store. But it's not exactly much of a stretch, considering their shop is small and only a handful of people come every day anyway.

Still, Ivan doesn't care much. If Blue will buy the book, then its more money for the store and Mr. Ling's business.

However, his attention was caught when Green comes up to him and slams a pack of cigarettes onto the counter. "I'll take this." Green says to Ivan and hands two 1 dollar bills, a 10 dollar bill and 85 cents, a total of 12.85 dollars. "You got any pills too?"

"Okay kid, ID first." Ivan responds to the young man, crossing his arms in anticipation for Green's identification. "We don't hand cigarettes and pills to minors."

"Come on, man. Just look the other way." Green insisted before pulling out an extra 5 dollars from his sweater's pocket and places it on the money he had previously put down a payment. "Here's an extra. Come on."

Ivan takes a deep sigh and shakes his, disappointed at the youth standing before him as he takes the cigarette pack away from Green. "ID or you're not getting this." He insisted, staring directly into Green's eyes.

"Give him the fucking cigarette."

Ivan could only make a small grunt when Blue was suddenly beside Green...

...holding a .9mm pistol in his hand, directly aimed at Ivan's face.

The way Blue was holding to the pistol, his hand not shaking even a small bit, means he knows exactly how to use it, which internally disappointed Ivan at the fact someone as young as him knows how to use a gun. The more he analyzes the situation, the more he found it harder to do anything other than comply. The gap created by the counter between him and the two teens means it'll be hard for him to disarm the young man and risks getting himself shot. It doesn't help that the kid most likely knows how to use the gun, as he observed. And with Green beside him, they could possibly take him on...

...if he were an ordinary human being.

For a brief moment, it looked like Ivan's eyes started glowing red. As red as the ring he has that began glowing as well. In a few brief seconds, Blue and Green look terrified as this man started looking less like a human more like a monster...

...but Ivan knew if he did this, the store would be in jeopardy. He doesn't want Mr. Ling to loose his business over a pack of cigarettes, and it's not worth wasting **_it _**on a bunch of kids seeking something to smoke and whatever they'll use the pills for.

When he blinks, his eyes return to their usual blue hue as he sighs and his ring stops glowing. He hands the cigarettes to the kid before taking a small pack of pills from under the counter and hands them to the two kids. "Keep your money. And don't ever come back here." He warns the two, with Blue giving a victorious smirk as he puts away his gun and Green takes both items he purchased.

The two then run off and out of the store as Ivan sighs before sitting back down on the stool. "Fucking hell..." was all he could mutter to himself as he wipes his forehead with the back of his left hand. He didn't even realize he had been sweating the whole time until he felt his hand on his wet forehead. It seems the fear of death is still existent to him, despite telling himself it no longer is. He internally notes to himself that it's probably just him unintentionally trying to act cool even when no one's around.

Later on, he spent the next 3 hours wasting time again, sitting on his stool while the shop's wall-hanging television is playing several Spanish soap operas that he doesn't really have any interest in but it's better than the shop staying quiet.

But much to his own dismay, in the next 2 hours, he actually found himself watching the soaps rather than just letting it play in the background. He is so incredibly disappointed in himself, but it's completely overshadowed by the fact that he's now eating 3 hotdogs he bought nearby, watching Mariah reveal to her boyfriend, Alfredo, that she was his sister the whole time. Truly, such a shocking plot twist than genuinely surprised Ivan.

But by next 2 hours and 30 minutes, he's turned off the TV to make sure he doesn't get addicted to his new guilty pleasure show. But now, he's left with more hours to waste until he needs to go home at 6 pm.

Just as he thought he's about to go insane from boredom, the sound of the bell ringing caught his attention again.

He raises his head from the counter after laying it down along with his arms and is surprised, honestly very happy, to see an old friend.

"Goddamn. Thank Christ, you're, Luke." Ivan finally let out to his friend, Luke, a 6 foot tall, bald, African-American man with magnificent beard and a muscular body, wearing a yellow shirt with sleeves reaching up to his elbow, black pants with a brown belt complimented by a silver belt buckle, black fingerless gloves and black boots.

Luke gives a big chuckle as he approaches Ivan at the counter and once they're near each other, bump their fists with one another as Ivan takes a sigh of relief. "Figured you'd be here somehow, Ivan. You're not exactly someone who goes out for fun. Swung by your apartment and didn't find you there, so I figured you'd be here, and lo and behold." Luke spoke to the bored shop attendant in a deep and smooth voice.

"You have no idea how much I needed some company. I've been bored out of my skull for the past 7 hours and a half." Ivan let out all his stress as he complained, sitting back on his stool as Luke started looking around the shop. "How's Jess and Dani?"

Luke makes another chuckle as he looks over the snack section, checking out some marshmallows and potato chips. "Well, Jess just got hired to investigate another case and Dani's at home with her uncle Danny." Luke responded, taking the marshmallow with multiple flavors on it and the spicy potato chips. He passes by the fridges and takes out 3 sodas. "How about you? The apartment holding up? Ditkovich still on your ass?" Luke added upon reaching the counter and places all his purchase on it.

Ivan sighs at the mention of that name as he stands back up from his stool and starts using the barcode scanner connected to the register on the items Luke intends to bring home with him. "That old fart needs to keep his daughter in a leash. She won't stop bitching about my rent." Ivan let out and finished scanning Luke's items. "That'll be 9.45 dollars, by the way."

"Eh, you'll be fine. Don't let her keep you down. She ain't nothin' but dirt on your shoe. You'll get over her." Luke attempts to console his friend as he pays up while Ivan places all of Luke's groceries into a paper bag. "I mean, unless this is because you're not getting paid enough to earn money for yourself?"

"Don't remind me..." Ivan responds, while Luke grabs his groceries from the counter and Ivan hands him the receipt. "Luke, you're my bro. Just as much as Danny is to you too. But I told you. Heroes For Hire? Not my style."

"Dude, you'd totally fit right in." Luke insisted with a small chuckle while talking, putting his receipt inside the paper bag.

"There are two problems when joining you guys. One, the waiting whenever we need a new job. Why hire heroes when there are cops and actual super freaks that will help you for free? And two..." Ivan counter argued to his friend until he suddenly stops talking, taking a deep, longing sigh. "...I don't fit the... 'Hero' part."

"Alright. Just give it some thought. I know you respect old man Ling, and to be honest, we all do. But if you ever reconsider, our door's always open. You know you got my vote, along with Danny and Misty. Heck, Jess too, but she's too prideful to admit it in your face." Luke encourage his friend. "See you around, brother."

"You too, Cage. Don't be a stranger." Ivan responds before performing a brotherly fist bump with his friend.

Luke takes his leave through the door as the sound of the clock in the shop ticking made Ivan realize something once again.

He's alone again. And it's going to be boring as hell for the next couple of hours.

_Hell's Kitchen_ truly lives up to it's name.

* * *

Eventually, closing time finally came at 6:55 pm as the bright white Moon shines from above and the dark blue sky gives the city an ominous feel, with the light, night fog seeping through the streets.

Having closed the shop, locking all the doors from the front to the backdoor, as well as turning off all the lights inside and outside, and getting dressed back up in his casual attire from earlier, Ivan takes a big sigh of relief and finally gets the chance to relax, even if just for a few hours before he has to come back tomorrow morning for his shift. He adds "asking Mr. Ling for a day off" to his mental to-do list as he heads down an alleyway that leads to a bus stop he'll take to get back to his apartment. And hopefully, he takes the bus alone. Hell's Kitchen isn't the friendliest neighborhood in New York and the last thing he wants is trouble.

Now that he mentioned it in his head, however, Ivan realized, and now hopes, that the bus drivers themselves aren't crooks looking for fights or an easy victim to rob from.

As he kept walking around, he yawns while passing by two, homeless folk that he decided to give spare change to on their empty coffee cups. But he didn't bother looking at them at all. It's not out of disrespect, lack of pity or outright being an asshole. He's just eager to go home now and he's content enough to know he gave those people some money.

He starts stretching and popping his neck to get rid of his fatigue while taking a left around a corner through this alleyway made by being in between two buildings. But upon taking this turn...

"You shouldn't have taken the job, missy. Now you caught the Big Man's attention, and it ain't the good kind of attention."

Ivan suddenly heard voices nearby. From the tone and pitch of the voice, it sounded male with a very thick southern accent. He takes the next turn to the right, where, coincidentally, leads to where the bus stop actually is. Upon doing so, he sees a group of people that he assumes is the cause of the commotion he felt and heard.

Three men surrounding a lone woman. The men are all wearing matching uniforms, complete with masks and transparent eye lenses to protecf their eyes. However, each of them have different colored suits.

One is wearing completely red outfit with grey outlines starting from his ankle going up to his sides and armpit. He has strange, metallic boots on his feet, with glowing green circles on both sides of each boot.

Another is, to Ivan's surprise, is a 7 foot tall, top heavy man with muscles bigger than even Luke himself. His uniform is blue instead, with the grey outlines found on his chest instead, with a big grey X marking in his back as a much smaller detail. He has strange pipes attached to a gasmask-like device on his mask's mouth are. The rest of the pipes are connected to a small tank of sorts attached to his back, just above his butt.

And finally, the last man is almost similar to the one wearing the red suit, except not only is his yellow, but it has several criss cross designs on it that make them look like fishnets atop his yellow suit with red outlines. In addition to this, he has strange and very large mechanical gauntlets on his arms with very similar green circles found on the red one's boots.

The woman herself is simply in an informal business attire while holding a briefcase in her left hand and hanging a purple coat over her right arm. She has very unkempt brown hair that, despite being tied into a ponytail, is still messy and frizzy, like she had just gotten back from work or she had just woken up and forgot she was wearing a ponytail the whole time. She also very beautiful fair skin and hypnotizing hazel eyes.

From Ivan's perspective, this looks like a group of supervillains are mugging a tired woman.

"Look boys..." The woman suddenly spoke as she slowly takes off her glasses with her free right hand before letting out a loud sigh of discontent. "I'm really tired after that first meeting. Can we do this tomorrow morning? I'll even let you hit me first as a headstart. How about that?"

The woman was speaking so casually, Ivan was genuinely convinced that either she's so extremely tired that she can't be bothered to feel threatened... or she's oblivious to the danger in front of her. Either way, this doesn't look like it won't bode well at all.

"No can do, doll. See, sticking your nose into the Big Man's business by helping your client in trying to sue him. Once we're done with you, your precious little customer ain't gonna be walking, or even talking, ever again. No one fights the Big Man without missing every shot and leaving the range alive." The one in yellow and wielder of the gauntlets spoke in a southern accent, which indicates that he was the one speaking earlier.

But instead of feeling threatened, the woman yawns instead and trails her eyes elsewhere to stop listening to the assassin until she eventually spots Ivan, to which, this time, actually surprises her. "Hey! You!"

Ivan only made a small grunt in response as all three men turn to look at him after the woman called for him. He mentally slapped himself for not even thinking of hiding at all to listen closely. He just outright walked into trouble despite telling himself he doesn't want it.

_Goddamnit..._

Ivan cursed to himself in his head as, out loud, he let out a very annoyed sigh. One could swear his ring glowed very, very slightly as he did so. "What do you want?" He asks the woman calling out to him.

"Can you leave? This could get bad and I wouldn't want you to get involved." The woman suddenly asks of Ivan, which honestly surprised him even more of how much this woman is taking the danger she's in very lightly, but has enough integrity to tell what she believes to be an innocent bystander to stay out of this situation.

"Yes, kid, go on home." The one in yellow actually agreed with his victim as the one with boots crosses his arms and the large man simply nods. "You keep walking, you tell no one and we don't attack you too, gotcha? Cause no one's gonna believe a damn thing you'll say anyway if you talk. It just gives us a reason to take you out with this woman here."

Ivan raised a brow from this criminal's offer. It's good to be true and had he been a normal person, they could easily kill him anyway and find a way to hide his body, with no one being the wiser.

Of course, he had never been ordinary ever since he awakened.

Internally, he's telling himself not to get involved. He owes this person nothing and these three look like they're connected to someone called the Big Man, which he has heard of somewhere before and from what he learned, this Big Man is a pretty big deal here in Hell's Kitchen. The risk of attracting a crime boss by saving this complete stranger is too high and endangers several lives. It's stupid to fight these stooges...

...But for some reason, he couldn't stop himself from speaking. It felt like he lost control of his mouth and his tongue and his brain just froze for several seconds, as words escaped his lips that he really wished he didn't say at all. "How about you leave that lady alone and I don't break all your noses and send them sideways?"

"Whoa." escaped the woman's mouth upon hearing Ivan speak, her face showing genuine surprise as her eyes are wide and her lips slightly agape.

"The hell? Don't you see we got you outnumbered AND outgunned?" The one in red spoke in retaliation, which only made Ivan internally wince more at suddenly putting himself in this situation.

What the hell was that? He really didn't want to be involved at all, but suddenly felt like helping her? There's no time to think this over, he told himself, as he's out of the frying pan and into the shit now.

Seeing talking this over being tossed out of the window by his OWN fault, he just takes a sigh, takes off his backpack, drops it on the ground and pops his neck. "Let's get this over with. I'm not made of time–"

But he could not finish his own sentence when suddenly, a large blast of vibration is shot at him and erupts upon contact, shooting him off the ground and knocking him back into the wall behind him so hard, it creates a very large dent on it shaped like his body, with several cracks forming from the epicenter of his collision with the hard surface. The attack had caused his forehead to begin bleeding as smoke seems to be coming out of the man in yellow's right gauntlet, aimed at Ivan.

"Ah, crap... He should've ran..." The woman mutters to herself while men continue to stare at Ivan.

"How's that for 'getting it over with', boy?!" The man in yellow mocks what he assumes is now Ivan's dead body as his giant companion chuckles while the one in red outright laughs at Ivan's incompetence. "Don't mess with folk you don't know about." He added with a little scoff for added insult before he and his crew begin turning around to face the woman yet again.

"Then you should practice what you preach, rodeo clown..."

All three villains were astonished upon hearing Ivan's voice and caused them take an about-face but it was too late as a blast of red energy hits the man in yellow directly in square in the chest, sending him flying into the street out of the alleyway they're in. As the two other villains recover from their shock of seeing their leader get knocked away like a rock hitting an empty plastic bottle, they turn their attention back to the assailant as Ivan lifted himself off of the wall he was embedded into.

The most peculiar part of this image of the young man, however, is the fact hat he's raising his right hand into a fist in front of him as his red ring is glowing bright that it's overpowering the dark alley and is actually providing enough light to show even the literal dark corners of this place. Not only that, but it's smoking very dark smoke like ones coming from very hot flames, unlike the man in yellow's gauntlet earlier, which is only comparable to a fired gun's smoking barrel.

Before the giant of a man, the one with ridiculous metal boots and the lone woman could even say anything else, all of a sudden, Ivan's clothes start changing color while his ring flashes once. His cream colored fur collar turned into a very dark black alongside his navy blue jacket turning black as well. His navy blue pants adopt the same color as his shoes change from a simple white into a very blood red pigment. He gains black gloves all of a sudden with blood red fingers similar to his shoes and his normally blue eyes turn red as well.

The final change to his appearance came when his pure white shirt changed into the same blood red as his other red features, but only this time, a symbol of sorts forms on his chest that resembles the emblem found on his ring: the strange, crimson lantern-like sigil inside a big circle.

"You don't know anything about me either." Ivan finally spoke after his brief transformation, his current audience of criminals and the woman only staring at him in surprise that Ivan is a superpowered individual this whole time.

"Shocker?" The man in red spoke out loud to their leader, all the while the woman continues to watch the situation, her surprised expression transitioning into a very curious smile.

"Well... This took a surprising turn of events." The lady tells herself just as the man in yellow, now identified as someone called Shocker, stand up from his spot on the road after being blasted by Ivan.

"Ricochet, Ox, don't just stand there! Restrain 'im and kick his be_hind_!" Shocker ordered the man in red, Ricochet, and the giant man, Ox, as he starts shooting out his shockwaves from his gauntlets, intended to kill Ivan as they are fired at maximum power.

However, Ivan simply projects a bubble of red energy around him and the shockwave does no significant damage at all and simply pushes Ivan back at the wall, replacing his man-shaped crater with a much bigger, ball shaped one, the shockwave from Shocker's gauntlet digging him deeper into the wall, and by extension, the building it's a part of.

Just when Shocker thought he's gotten the upper hand, Ivan roars like a wild animal with incomprehensible rage as he starts pushing back the beam by simply walking forward with the bubble shield still around him. The vibration inducing villain could not do anything but keep his beam of shockwaves going and grunt as hard as he is pushing back, but Ivan seems to only grow stronger the angrier he gets as the pace of his walk grows faster and is receiving less resistance before he discards his bubble shield and was fast enough to create a stronger, much bigger, red energy beam that clashes with Shocker's attack before eventually overpowering it, pushing and outright piercing through Shocker's move and hitting him again in the chest, knocking him into a building on the other side of the road instead.

Watching Shocker knocked around like an unwanted doll caused the woman to smile further as he watches Ivan work.

With their leader temporarily immobilized, Ricochet takes center stage and jumps onto a wall to his left. Just as Ivan tries to blast Ricochet, the acrobat suddenly creates a small shockwave from the sole of his boots that are against the wall he jumped onto and bounced to a different wall, causing Ivan to miss his attack and strike the wall Ricochet used to be on instead. When he spots Ricochet on another wall, he tries to blast him again only for Ricochet to, of course, bounce into a different wall, leaving the wall he was initially on to get blasted apart by Ivan again.

However, once he lands on another wall, he did not wait for Ivan to attack again for him to bounce a third time as he takes another leap into another surface. And another. And another. And another until he kept going and going to the point that all Ivan sees is a series of blurs that look like a big spider's web made of Ricochet's afterimage after each bounce.

_This guy's name isn't just for show..._

He noted as his opponent is bouncing everywhere, true to his namesake.

But things only got confusing to very bad real fast for Ivan as for each bounce that Ricochet passes by the red ring slinger's path, Ricochet strikes him with a punch, a karate chop or a kick, and Ivan could not even react fast enough to block any of them. Ricochet isn't slowing down, either, and his nonstop barrage of bouncing attacks is getting on Ivan's nerves, which is only serving to get him angrier and angrier, clouding his thoughts slowly, preventing him from thinking straight little by little.

However, Ivan's rage fueled mind began thinking again once he sees a pattern. Ricochet had actually been doing the same 6 bounces the entire time, and he always starts and ends on the first wall he bounced off of before repeating again. Not only that, but he had been striking Ivan on the same spots on his body for each bounce. From the first bounce, Ricochet punches him on his chest, followed by the second bounce attack aimed at his left shoulder before the third strike hits him on the back. Next, his right shoulder is struck at the fourth bounce before finishing it with a kick to his left leg in the fifth bounce. The only one without a follow up attack is Ricochet's sixth bounce, where he takes this time to recover so he can bounce on the first wall.

This was enough for the red ring slinger to pinpoint Ricochet's next move and predict where his attack will land next. He just needs to wait as he eyes the villain's movements as best he can.

One bounce.

Two.

Three.

Four...

The fifth bounce! On his left leg!

Once Ricochet strikes Ivan's leg, he was very much surprised and terrified when he stopped moving and fall straight on the ground. When he looks behind him, he is very, very scared of what he found: Ivan caught his right leg just before he could get to his sixth bounce!

Ricochet could do nothing else but pray to whatever deity he believes in as the enraged superpowered man starts flailing and spinning Ricochet around above his head before tossing him into an open garbage bin near a wall behind Ivan. The force of Ricochet colliding with the bin before falling straight into it caused the bin's lid to fall and close shut atop Ricochet like literal garbage.

The woman Ivan is "rescuing" could not help but chuckle at the sight of someone treating a villain like garbage and throwing them away like one.

Ivan takes several deep breathes of exhaustion after trying to figure out Ricochet's pattern, but he had no time to rest at all when a shadow loom over him that caused his field of view to darken. He had no time to react at all when Ox gives him a big and tight bear hug from behind. Ox's grip was so tight that the red ring slinger had no leverage at all, his arms being forced to his sides as the stoic giant began tightening his hold on him and starts squeezing him like a lemon on a hydraulic press.

Ox was not letting up and Ivan is forced to experience pain all over his body as he's starting to feel his bones beginning to crack, to the point that he can almost hear them beginning to do so. This immense pain is enough to make him start screaming in pain for first time in this entire fight.

This did not escape the woman's sight and hearing as Ivan screaming and struggling was starting to worry her. So, unknown to Ox, the woman suddenly dropped her purple coat and brief case on the floor before gently placing her glasses atop her dropped case.

One could swear her eyes change from hazel to a bright, glowing green.

Ox continued to quite literally squeeze the life out of Ivan, who kept struggling as he tries his best to move his arms, but to no avail. It doesn't help that being in this position has slowed down the flow of blood to everything below his chest, including his arms, so he can't even feel his hands anymore. He has think of something, or else he's about to pop like a water balloon filled with blood instead.

_Wait... Blood..._

He thought and suddenly remembered one of his abilities. One he hates the most purely for being absolutely disgusting... and being incredibly effective. But he has no choice now. Whatever happens to this Ox guy, it's his fault.

So he takes an incredibly huge breath, to the point of raising his head and looking up at the sky with puffed cheeks, much to the confusion of the giant man. And once he's done, Ivan does something Ox will never be able to forget his entire life, if he ever survives this.

Ivan starts vomiting dark red blood from his mouth and spews them all on Ox's arms. This blood vomit is so intense, it's actually emitting black smoke, similar to a bright, burning flame. And before Ox knew, he himself began screaming in bloody murder as he releases Ivan from his tight grip as the burning blood on his arms started melting through his suit like napalm. And judging by how fast it's burning and how hot the blood actually is, it may very well _**BE **_napalm!

Once dropped by his foe, Ivan could only sprawl on the floor as he coughs up his own blood from the vomit he had just done to Ox while trying desperately to move. With his arms out of commission for a while and his legs slowly gaining blood flow, all Ivan could do was crawl as he watches Ox flail his burning arms around. When he could not find anything to put it out, he ignores his pain in favor of at least finishing off his enemy as Ox lost all his stoic attitude and grabs a nearby car, lifting it over his head and was about to throw it at the still-recovering red ring slinger...

...until Ox felt something grab him by the back of his suit. He could not turn around in time as he suddenly gets pulled away and tossed into the building Shocker got knocked into.

As if on cue, Shocker had just recovered and was about to get back up, until he sees Ox coming at him at the speed of sound and the large brute collides with his leader, knocking them both out in the process.

Ivan could barely register what had just happened as he eyes the unconscious Ox on the other side of the street, but his train of thought was derailed when a big green hand suddenly appears before him, offering him help to stand back up. Once he could feel his arms and hands again, Ivan takes the hand, but instead of getting back up, he is instead lifted upward and sees before him such a beauty.

A magnificent woman wearing the business suit of the woman from earlier, this new person is a 6'7 tall, slender but still very toned and muscular amazonian beauty with long flowing dark green hair, green eyes and such a lovely face that any straight man can fall for. Her grip on Ivan's hand is tight but not enough to crush it, and feels so tender the longer she held him. She has a very prominent bust accentuated by her outfit revealing part of her cleavage that seemed to have caused several of the buttons on her outfit to burst.

"You put up quite a show, hotshot. A big 'A' for effort, but a 'B+' on execution. You almost looked like my cousin there." This emerald, amazonian maiden tells him before gently dropping him back on his own two feet.

The more Ivan looks and observes her directly, the more he starts to realize who this is. Those clothes, the fact that the woman earlier is missing and now this new person is here, the woman's casual attitude of being in danger and this woman matching, and maybe even surpassing, Ox's super strength... She's...!

"You're that woman earlier! You... transformed!" Ivan deduced as he points at the giant woman, who only gives him a cute chuckle before offering her hand for a handshake.

"Jennifer Walters. Attorney at Law." says the Sensational She-Hulk.

* * *

**/  
****—To be continued—-  
****\**

* * *

**End - A/N: And that's it for now. What did you guys think? I hope I didn't make Ivan too annoying or anything. I wanted to add some very subtle traits about him that justifies why he has a Red Lantern ring. Of course, the true reason behind this will eventually explored but not right now. It's too early for that. I wish to keep it a mystery for now and keep readers guessing.**

**As for the setting, I chose Hell's Kitchen on purpose. It barely gets any love these days. And don't worry! The rest of the Heroes for Hire and Hell's Kitchen's heroes and villains will appear! I promise!**

**As for what continuity I'm crossing this over, it's not in a specific one but just my own original Marvel verse that's inspired by others before it, like the MCU, the actual comics, several cartoons like Spectacular Spider Man and Earth's Mightiest heroes, and some works of my other Fanfiction friends. Shout out to CaptainRex75! So like I said, this continuity is a bit of a composite of several inspirations, so sometimes I'll be taking a few liberties in some characters but not too much that it detracts from their actual characterization.**

**So for now, please leave some reviews and honest criticisms so that I may know what to add or improve upon the story to your liking!**

**Hope to see you all again on the next chapter! As Ganthet once said...**

**_In fearful day, in raging night,  
_****_With strong hearts full, our souls ignite,  
__When all seems lost in the War of Light,  
_****_Look to the stars- For hope burns bright!_**


	2. Chapter 2: Friends and Foes

**A/N: So I suppose it's a slow start, but hey, good stories always start like that. I just hope I achieve expectations from the ones reading this.**

**So to those who posted their reviews, thank you, as well as to those who followed and favorite this story. I was honestly scared that this story came off as unprofessional and I really want to improve as a writer, so hopefully, I can learn from you all through praise and criticism.**

**So for now, here's the second chapter.**

* * *

_Previously on Crimson Red..._

Ivan could barely register what had just happened as he eyes the unconscious Ox on the other side of the street, but his train of thought was derailed when a big green hand suddenly appears before him, offering him help to stand back up. Once he could feel his arms and hands again, Ivan takes the hand, but instead of getting back up, he is instead lifted upward and sees before him such a beauty.

A magnificent woman wearing the business suit of the woman from earlier, this new person is a 6'7 tall, slender but still very toned and muscular amazonian beauty with long flowing dark green hair, green eyes and such a lovely face that any straight man can fall for. Her grip on Ivan's hand is tight but not enough to crush it, and feels so tender the longer she held him. She has a very prominent bust accentuated by her outfit revealing part of her cleavage that seemed to have caused several of the buttons on her outfit to burst.

"You put up quite a show, hotshot. A big 'A' for effort, but a 'B+' on execution. You almost looked like my cousin there." This emerald, amazonian maiden tells him before gently dropping him back on his own two feet.

The more Ivan looks and observes her directly, the more he starts to realize who this is. Those clothes, the fact that the woman earlier is missing and now this new person is here, the woman's casual attitude of being in danger and this woman matching, and maybe even surpassing, Ox's super strength... She's...!

"You're that woman earlier! You... transformed!" Ivan deduced as he points at the giant woman, who only gives him a cute chuckle before offering her hand for a handshake.

"Jennifer Walters. Attorney at Law." says the Sensational She-Hulk.

* * *

A police siren echoed in the streets as the police vehicle passes by a building while the officer inside carefully spun the steering wheel to take a turn on the corner. The officer is a woman of Asian descent, perhaps Japanese, with short hair, brown eyes, a black jacket on top of a red sweatshirt, brown pants and black boots. On right at the passenger seat is her revolver with a few extra bullets, a police warrant and what seems to be her personal cellphone. It's not a new age, touch screen smart phone and looks more like an old school flip phone, complete with visible wear and tear and some scratches on the main screen and sub screen on the back of the upper half of the device.

On her vehicle's dashboard is her police radio, a torn picture of her and a strange man whose head is obscured by red marker ink, almost like he is X-ed out, and an older woman which can be assumed is her mother and finally, her police badge from NYPD.

The officer grabs her police radio with her right hand while her left continues to steer the wheel, all while carefully watching the streets, buildings and sidewalks around her car as she presses a button on the radio to speak, saying, "This is officer Watanabe. I'm at 59th street, investigating the recently called disturbance nearby by a concerned citizen. I'll radio back if I see anything."

"Roger that. Just be careful out there, Yuri. Hell's Kitchen ain't something you've tread into before." The officer on the other side of the call replied in a deep baritone voice.

Yuri Watanabe, the officer heading for the scene of the possible crime, replies, "Copy that. I'll be fine. If I can handle an operation with the web head, I can handle Hell's Kitchen."

A small chuckle responded to her from her radio before it comments, "You don't have him with you right now. Good luck and stay safe."

Yuri didn't need to respond anymore as she puts back the radio onto it's holder and takes another turn with her car, turning another corner and past the next street light. However, the officer did not have enough time to drive as the moment she took that path, she immediately saw the fallen and unconscious bodies of two known criminals and hired thugs Yuri recognizes as Ricochet and Ox, their equipment fully intact.

She's dealt with them before and their leader, Shocker, during a fight at an abandoned opera house and she had help from a local superhero that brought the whole building down on them. They escaped but their equipment was damaged and haven't shown up in a long time. To think she'd meet them here in Hell's Kitchen, of all places...

The officer steps on the brakes before pulling on the handbrake itself, twisting her car key to switch off her vehicle and pull it out so she can then open her car door, grab her revolver and exit her automobile so she can check on the criminals lying on the floor.

Out of caution, she keeps both hands on the weapon and her aim with her gun straight at the unconscious villains while approaching them, taking small, slow steps to not only keep herself quiet, but to make sure she has enough distance to run away quickly in case either or both of them wake up. Upon closing the distance, she keeps her revolver pointed at Ricochet's head with one hand this time so that her now free left hand can poke the bouncy criminal on his head. When Ricochet gave no answer, Yuri then checks his neck for a pulse. It's there, beating, and she can even feel and hear his slow but steady breathing.

"Down but not out." Officer Watanabe whispered to herself and steps away from Ricochet to check Ox next, who lying on his side, his back facing Yuri, so she can't see what exactly is up with Ox by the front side of his body.

Like before, she takes slow and quiet steps to approach Ox. When she finally gets to his forward facing side, what she saw absolutely shocked her.

Ox's arms and hands are badly burned. The part of his suit covering them has been burned off, as does the rest of his skin from the elbow down to his very fingers. It's burnt so badly, part of his skin is as black as coal while some parts of it have been burned off so intensely, part of his very **muscles **are showing, and even the muscles themselves have signs of being burned as well!

It's almost disconcerting that Ox still looks calm judging by his face while unconscious, which just looks like he's sleeping. So either his massive injury has shocked him so much, he lost consciousness in a deep level, or... he may already be dead.

To make sure, Yuri touches on his neck as well and presses hard due to his thick skin...

...and it relieved her that he has a pulse. But she knew she has a job to do first, so she goes back to her vehicle walking slightly backwards, to keep her eyes on Ricochet and Ox while keeping her gun aimed at them, occasionally looking back to see if she's actually headed for her car.

Once she reaches it, she opens the door to the driver's seat once more and grabs her radio, it's cord extending enough for her to take it with her outside of the vehicle. Pressing the button to call back to the main precinct, she radios in to say, "This is officer Watanabe at 59th street. We have two wounded and current most wanted in the scene of the crime. Daniel Brito and Raymond Bloch, aka, Ricochet and Ox. Requesting back up. Send an ambulance for Ox, who has received fourth degree burns, possibly fatal, if not treated immediately."

"Roger that. Already on their way. Those guys are Enforcers, right? Is Shocker there?" The officer on the other side of the call asks while in the background, Yuri can hear the sound of people conversing and gathering, possibly for what she had just called in for.

"No. Jackson Brice isn't here. We don't know the full story of what happened here, so we better get investigating." Officer Watanabe replied, looking back and forth on her radio and the unconscious suspects. "Whatever did this to them must be some kind of monster..."

* * *

**SLIIIIIRP!**

Ivan could only stare while holding his cup of soda, his untouched cheeseburger with extra pickles on a plate in front of him as just across the table in the late night diner he's in is, of course, Jennifer Walter in her glorious, almost amazonian-body alter ego named She Hulk, her bright green skin contrasting her dark formal uniform. The muscular beauty is simply sipping on the straw of her own soda, which is in the large size, rather than Ivan's regular sized cup, as she nearly finishes it's contents while her own plate is empty with a few crumbs left, a hint that the heroic attorney had finished her own meal.

"Whew!" She Hulk let out after finishing her drink. "Nothing beats a classic cola after a hearty meal. I miss doing this. I always end up eating Chinese food after work these days. So busy with all my cases."

The giant woman, however, gains a nonplussed reaction when she sees Ivan just staring at him, holding his cup as the water droplets that had built up due to the moisture produced by the coldness of his soda starts to drop onto his hand. Instead of being weirded out, however, She Hulk replaces her surprised expression with a smug smirk and a raised brow and starts playing with the straw of her cup by flicking it up and down. "Hey now. If you wanted a different snack, you could have just asked~" She teased the store employee.

This snapped Ivan out of his trance, causing him to blink twice before shaking his head and finally gaining his trademark angry face, as he responds sternly, "I'm just trying to figure out how the fu-"

For some reason, Ivan suddenly stopped, which made She Hulk wonder. That is, until a father and his little daughter, presumably 5 to 6 years old, pass by their table and head for the door to leave the diner. The little girl was even laughing as she held a doll that resembled a woman in red, yellow and blue spandex and blonde hair.

With a sigh, Ivan continued, "I was trying to figure out how someone like you got cornered by those scumbags."

While she's a little disappointed that her teasing didn't fluster this man, She Hulk — or rather, Jennifer — couldn't help but smile at that little subtle stop Ivan made. He was about to curse in the middle of his sentence but saw a little girl pass by and was about to hear him so he paused himself, as if not wanting his bad words fall on an innocent child's ears. This little hint made the attorney a little more interested in this stranger that already got her interest when he showed earlier that he had his own superpowers yet has never heard about him before.

"They didn't corner me. I let it play out because I was tired. Nothing they do can really harm me. These guns aren't just for show." She Hulk boasts while flexing the muscles on her left arm. "Not even Ox. Guy can lift cars and punch steel, but I can stop speeding trains and pummel titanium with my own hands."

"So I heard. I've seen you before. On the news, on the TV in Mr. Ling's store. Never caught your name though. Always busy with watching over the store and all that." Ivan responds and finally takes a sip on his cup of soda. But not even 3 seconds in, and he immediately stops after getting a taste of his soda, which has become nearly bland in flavor due to the fact that all the ice in the cup, and by extension, the drink itself, has began to melt, mixing cold water into the soda and robbing it of any good taste. Ivan mentally scolded himself for letting this happen by staring relentlessly at She Hulk for no reason. "Fuck..." He whispered to himself.

She Hulk did not hear his whisper nor did he notice his annoyance at his now bland soda, so she instead comments on his previous words where he never knew her identity, telling him, "Well, now you know. She Hulk, at your service. But because you tried to 'save my life', you earned the privilege to call me Jennifer. Or, Jen, for short."

"Lucky me." Ivan, however, sarcastically replied with a scowl on his face, before placing his soda on the table and grabs his cheeseburger to take a bite. He chews on what he had bitten before swallowing and placing his meal back on the plate to continue the conversation. "Ivan Sokolov."

The man was about to eat again until he noticed that Jen is tapping lightly on the table and giving him an anticipating expression. Ivan, confused at what she's doing, raises a brow in response and stares back at her. "What?" The man asks, concerned at what Jen is doing.

"That's it? Ivan Sokolov? No hero name?" Jen responds with her own question, alongside a guessing shrug. "I gave you mine."

"I don't do hero names. I'm not a hero." Ivan responds in a dry tone before continuing his snack, biting more off his burger and chews slowly.

His words fell on bewildered ears, however, as she then points out with crossed arms. "So why'd you try to save me there, huh?"

Just in time for Ivan to swallow what he chewed, Ivan keeps his hold on the burger in both of his hands and plays back Jen's question inside his head. Why **_did _**he try to save her? Shocker threatened him and Jen and the next thing he knew, it felt like he lost control of his own tongue and began speaking on it's own, threating Shocker and his Enforcers back and tried to protect Jen from her perpetrators. Did something inside him genuinely wanted to save her and kick those villains' asses? Or was he thinking that those crooks have seen his face and he's got nothing left but to defend himself at that situation?

Without a clue as to which one is true, Ivan takes a deep breath, exclaims with a loud and long sigh, tells Jen, "I have no clue."

"...Oh. Hm. Well, if it's any consolation... I genuinely appreciate it. Even if I could have dealt with them with an arm tied behind my back. But you probably didn't know that and tried to help me anyway. Thank you." Jen dropped all her snarky, teasing tones altogether to give Ivan her legitimate gratitude.

"...Yeah. You're welcome." Ivan replies. Just like the amazonian beauty, Ivan had no hint of sarcasm or annoyance in his own voice. While it sounded almost monotone, his contemplative expression is enough for Jen to feel the sincerity of his words, putting a smile on her face. "And... thanks for the meal... And for nursing my wounds as best you can." He adds as he reached for his right arm, trying to feel if it's still broken or has finally healed.

"Least I could do. But on our next date, you better be buying, okay?" Jen responds, reigniting her playful attitude as she winks at Ivan. She received a scowl from him, however. His own face just screams 'Stop doing that', which was enough to make the green skinned lady to giggle and wave her hand at Ivan. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Just messing with ya. I'll admit though. Tons of guys start blushing whenever I tease them like that. You're one of few who can remain composed. Unless... Are you g—...?"

"No. I'm not." Ivan confirmed for her without even letting her finish the question. It was as if he had already guessed what she was going to ask.

"Oh, good. Last thing I need is offending certain kinds of people. Like, for real. Today's been tiring and I don't want anymore surprises." Jen spoke in an exasperated tone, adding a deep sigh at the end of her sentence before leaning back on her chair to relax herself.

Her words reminded the red ring slinger of earlier's events, when the Enforcers threatened her life. Seeing he's now basically involved in this, he might as well know what he got himself into. "Speaking of that, I think it's time we talked about the elephant in the room, attorney." He started the much more important conversation.

"I told you. You can call me Jen." The emerald heroine insists.

"No. We're not there yet. We need to discuss what happened." Ivan insists as well. To further show just how much he wants to take this seriously, he takes one last sip on his bland drink, throws it an a nearby trash can, and moves aside his plate containing his nearly finished cheeseburger, with the pickles and lettuce dropping off of it, alongside the ketchup, mayo and mustard leaking out as well.

Jen only mumbles an annoyed growl before crossing her arms, a pout formed on her face as she tells Ivan, "Geez. You don't let a girl rest. We just finished doing a lot of stuff and wanna keep going? I appreciate a man that can last this long with me, but—"

**SLAM!**

Jen stops talking when Ivan slams both of his fists on their table, his red ring glowing in tandem with his anger as his hair casts a shadow over his eyes and causing his appearance to look a tad bit more menacing. His actions caused Jen to stop joking around, earning Ivan an almost defeated groan from her while she inclines from her seat to properly face her fellow superpowered fellow. "... I was trying my best to keep our conversation as quiet as possible. We're in a public area. If you want to talk about _that_, we need somewhere secluded. Got it?" The amazonian beauty tried her best to keep her voice down, while also making sure she can be heard by Ivan.

"...Fine. How does my apartment sound?" Ivan replies after taking a few seconds to think.

"Good enough." Jen replies, her tone still serious. However, she notices that some of the people in the diner are now looking at them after Ivan slammed the table to silence her seconds ago. In an attempt to save face, she drops her urgent attitude and smirks once again and says, "My, how forward. Inviting She Hulk to your apartment already after dinner. What do you plan on doing to me, hotshot?"

"Oh my fucking god..." was all the red ring slinger could only mutter under his breath while placing his palm over his face, irritated while Jen chuckles.

* * *

After paying for their meal, Jen and Ivan took a bus to head for the man's apartment. All the seats in the bus are full, so the two end up standing while holding onto the bus' grab handles. Due to Jen's current height, however, she didn't need the handles, so instead, she holds onto the very steel rail the handles are tied to . While Ivan holds onto his own handle, with his free hand inside his pocket, trying his best to relax, he sees that some of the passengers see Jen — or rather, She Hulk — and start taking pictures of this superhero taking the commute.

She Hulk plays along, waving back at folks who wave at her, posing for the ones taking pictures of her, and even talking to some people, mostly kids, who wanted to ask questions about her.

While normally, it would look like a celebrity is trying to appease her paparazzi, but the way Ivan sees it, Jen is just interacting with people she saves on a regular basis. To show that she truly cares for them.

There's not a lot of heroes in this planet he knows that does this. Closest he got was his friends like Luke, Danny and Misty. On that note, a part of him wants to see them again to find a way to relax and meet some company he's comfortable with. Danny and Misty, especially. They actually know how to have fun, and he could really use that to get all this crap out of his mind.

_"I'll feel like a third wheel, though. Maybe I'll just hang out with Colleen..."_

Ivan thought to himself as he rests his face on his arm that's currently holding onto the grab handle, acting as his own makeshift pillow to lean on. He keeps his eyes on She Hulk, however. A part of him is telling himself that he should really just cooperate with her, but the other part is to just not get involved at all and stay quiet. What would that cost him, anyway?

"Is he your boyfriend?"

Ivan's full attention was brought towards a little girl wearing a shirt that has She Hulk's face as it's primary design, indicating she's a big fan of the jade giantess. The little girl asked a very sudden question that it genuinely surprised Jen and astonished the usually stoic Ivan. It was so sudden, her mother had to shush her and apologize to Jen and Ivan. "I'm really sorry. She's a really nosy child." The mother says as she stroke her daughter's hair.

"It's okay, ma'am. I've had talk show hosts ask worse." Jen reassures the mother while waving nonchalantly at her.

"I saw you two enter the bus together!" The girl insisted, which forced the mom to shush her again out of fear of offending the superhero in front of them. Instead of that, however, She Hulk simply laughs it off and pats the child's head affectionately.

"Now now, kiddo. Just because a pretty lady and cute boy walk in together, it doesn't always mean that they're a couple, okay? They can be friends too. Do _you _have friends that are boys?" Jen humors the young girl while also trying to give her a heartfelt lesson.

The girl responds with a two, adorable nods. "I have three of them! One is named Billy, the other is Thomas, his brother, and the other one is Julian!"

"And is one of them your boyfriend?"

"No?"

"See? Boys and girls can still be friends."

Hearing this made the girl giggle and her mother smile as Jen pats her head again, ensuring that this little one would not have such a skewed view on how she sees people together. "What's your name?"

"I'm Ruth!" The young girl, Ruth, responds to the emerald amazon with a big smile on her face.

"Well, little Ruth, you just made my day!" said Jen, giving back her own smile.

Having watched all of this, Ivan himself didn't notice that he too slowly forms a small smile on his lips, watching the joy in the young one's eyes and the way Jennifer talks to her in a jovial way, like a neighborhood friend across the street.

He's not entirely familiar with the hero business of this planet, but the fact that She Hulk talks and humbles ordinary folk has him hoping there's more like her.

Unfortunately, his joy is cut short the more he looks at her, which just reminds him why he and Jen are even riding together in the first place. The bus couldn't go fast enough to drop them off at his apartment so they could finally talk about what happened tonight. After brief, deep sigh to himself, he could only mentally tell himself one thing:

_What did I get myself into?_

* * *

With the door for the apartment building creaking open, the receptionist at the desk, watching on her phone of what seems to be news about some masked vigilante capturing criminals using strange greyish fluid as strings to wrap around his enemies, is alerted and has her attention taken by Ivan entering the complex.

"Ivan. Finally. Your rent. Dad is still waiting for the other 20 dollars. Pay up or you're getting you ass evicted." She yells at him, placing her phone on her desk to talk.

With a groan, Ivan pulls out 20 bucks from his left pocket and slams it in front of the woman. "There. Now please, shut the fuck up. I am having a migraine from what happened today and I don't need your voice to give me brain damage."

The receptionist was about to yell back at the stressed out ring slinger only to keep her mouth agape and her eyes wide open as Jen, still as She Hulk, enters the building as well, carrying her purple coat on her arm and her suitcase on her other hand. She flips some of her hair back before placing a hand on her hip.

"Whew. Nice apartment. Well kept and smells nice too." She Hulk comments while Ivan goes on ahead, approaching the stairs, prompting Jen to follow suit.

"Y-Y-Y-You're... She Hulk!" The woman at the desk stammers, pointing at the jade beauty trailing behind Ivan with her trembling finger.

But she was ignored by her when Ivan replies to Jen, overlapping her words, saying, "It's nothing special, attorney. It's damp, it's got shitty food and there are some tiles missing on the floors."

"It can't be that bad. At least you got some place to stay."

"Staying and living are two separate things."

As the duo's voices trail off the more they head upstairs, the receptionist could only stammer and remain astonished as she tries to process what had just happened.

_She Hulk... is in our apartment... and she's buddy buddy with that asshole, Ivan... What the fu—_

* * *

Ivan's door creaks just as loud as the apartment building's own entry door while his keys cling and clacker against the doorknob it was slided into when he unlocked it. Flipping the switch just beside the door frame, Ivan's room lights up and shows his slightly untidy room to the green goddess behind him. Some of his laundry had fallen out of the basket while the chair for his table is pulled all the way out instead of under the table. Some pieces of paper are scattered across the floor, with one of them being an eviction notice that had already been paid, thankfully, and his broken clock is still on the floor mat.

The red ring slinger sighs at the sight of his room, embarrassment and annoyances himself filling his thoughts while he facepalms. "Sorry... I wasn't expecting guests today..." says Ivan while Jen stands tall behind him.

Much to his surprise, though, She waves it off and smiles. "Ah, it's fine. You should see my room during AND after cases. It looks like a hurricane of papers swept through my house."

"Uh... Thanks... I guess?" Ivan tells her, bewildered by the comparison as he raises a brow. He finally gestures her to come inside, with Jen stepping forth into his room as he closes the door behind them. Once they're both inside, he gestures her again, this time, to tell her she can sit on his soft bed, which is actually the only thing fixed and clean, as he, himself, takes his chair, pulling it closer to the bed before sitting down, face to face with the jade beauty.

"So... Where do we start, Mr. Sokolov? Are you Russian, by the way? I know a Russian super spy that's friends with my cousin and my... Uhhh... frienemy's girlfriend, I guess."

"I..." Ivan mutters at her sudden question about his identity. With a sigh, he adds, "I don't know. I don't remember my past... Look, we're not here to talk about me. We're talking about us."

"Already? Baby, we're going too fast." Jen teases Ivan once more, which only made him groan. However, he didn't have time to complain when Jen smirks and opens her suitcase and taking some of the files it contained, handing them to Ivan while she carefully put down her case next to her on the bed. "There. I'm currently dealing with a case involving a crime lord only known as 'The Big Man', New York's mysterious mob boss that no one has seen, spoken to or even believe actually exists. An eye witness that's currently my client claims he actually saw that the supposed family friendly Italian restaurant owner, Joseph Romano, also known as 'Hammerhead', was actually working this Big Man and uses the restaurant as a front."

Ivan skims through the files, reading the most important parts while listening to Jen to get the full story. Several fronts this "Big Man" has include arms dealing, drug manufacturing, organized crime and hits/assassinations are most of the things Ivan saw on each paper, with each far more terrible than the last.

"So now, my client is trying to sue Hammerhead at court. But the problem is, we don't have much evidence apart from my client's own words and claims. Until today."

Ivan averts his look from the files and looks at Jennifer, knowing full well what she meant. "The Enforcers." says him. And almost like a reflex, his red ring lights up and his eyes turn from blue to red. It seems the mere thought of them is triggering his anger, justified as they actually physically harmed him, and the pain is still lingering in his muscles and nerves.

"Calm down, Red. You beat the crap out of them. They'll remember you more than you should remember them." Jen reassures him, giving him a smile as a way to project it onto him so he'd stop being angry.

Unfortunately, Ivan doesn't agree with this sentiment, as he remains scowling while having his ring remain glowing bright red. While he's keeping his glare at She Hulk, it's not her that's angering her. He's merely looking while the recent memory of Shocker, Ricochet and Ox play in his mind. "It's hard to forget those idiots when they kicked my ass. If it weren't for—!" He spoke back, his tone nearing yelling levels, but he suddenly stops upon realizing something. With a deep sigh, he looks down at the floor, head slumped as the light from his ring glimmers before fading completely. After A brief second to himself, he faces Jen again, his eyes blue, and continues his comment in a much lighter tone. "...If it weren't for you, Ox may have killed me while I was still limp from his bear hug."

"Well, you turned his arms into barbecue. While I don't approve of the gruesomeness, at least you showed him not to mess with you ever again." says Jen, her smile becoming a smirk while she crosses her legs. "Anyway, back on topic, with this attack from the Enforcers and their threat to me, which would have failed, even if you didn't come, is more evidence for me and my client. Shocker even says the Big Man sent them. But the only problem is..."

"...that you have no physical evidence they're actually working for this... Big Man, to show for the court and the police." Ivan continues her own sentence, receiving a nod from the attorney to confirm his assumption.

"Bingo." says her, giving Ivan a playful finger gun motion. "And that's where you step in with us, Red."

This notion completely catches Ivan off guard, his eyes wide open and his mouth slightly agape, as he processes what She Hulk had just said. "You want me... to be a part of this case?" Ivan asks, checking to see if that's what the attorney superhero meant.

"Yep. You were there at the scene of the crime. You kicked Shocker's and Ricochet's butt and horribly burned Ox. And even before that, you heard everything they told me. We need you as a witness." says Attorney Walters, which just further surprises the red ring slinger.

"Witness? Like... I'll publicly show myself to court and have the Big Man know I'm onto him to?" he responds, understandably a bit concerned.

"Yes! With your help, we'd be a couple of steps closer to taking down that guy. It's a small contribution, sure, but it's better than nothing."

Ivan, crossing his arms, responds with an unsure, "Yeah, but..."

"What are you afraid of? You got superpowers. Anyone he sends got nothing on you and me."

Ivan kept quiet as he looks away. No scowl. No grumpy expression. All his face is wearing this time is a small frown. Jen couldn't read him much, thanks to not knowing a lot about him, but the way he looks now, one thing came to Jen's mind: Ivan's doubtful about this current situation.

With a regretful sigh, she speaks up and tells him, "Right... Sorry. We just met and I'm already asking you to basically put a target on your back. What was I thinking?"

"You just wanted to help your client and stop a criminal." Ivan responds, but he keeps his gaze away from Jen.

"By trying to force someone to act as a witness without asking if they want to take the risk? I'm a professional. Not heartless." Jen responds, standing up from Ivan's bed and asks for the files back. The ring slinger sighs and hands the files of the case back to the jade beauty. As she packs them back to their suitcase, she continues their conversation. "Look, I know that I'm asking too much. But please know that I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't so important. The amount of people the Big Man has killed are twice the amount of people he has harmed, all for the sake of his growing criminal empire, and not a lot of people in New York are even aware he exists. All I'm asking is for you to consider. I won't force you... But it'll make my job harder if you refuse. So please..."

Ivan finally had the mood to face Jen again, sighing as he turns his head to look at her, waiting for her next words.

"... Here." The emerald amazon spoke, slightly opening her case to take something out. Upon showing her hand, she shows to Ivan a silver card, containing a logo resembling an "S" over the letter "H" while below are the words "Law Offices of Jennifer Walters, PLLC". Jen then flips it over to show what seems to be two different sets of numbers, one for a telephone and one for a cellphone, as well as the address to her office, which appears to be in Brooklyn, easily an 11 mile drive.

"Call me on either one if you've decided on what your stance will be in this situation. Most of the guys I've worked with only use them to check on me, thinking they have a chance, so I just ignore them. But... I can tell you'll use this for the right reason."

Ivan takes it, observing it carefully as Miss Walters proceeds to the door, ready to leave. Something inside Ivan is telling him to stand up and just tell Jen he's sorry he can't respond immediately, as a part of him just wants to live quietly and not get involved in something so big and above him. But his guilt is gnawing at him and it's telling him to just help Jen. All he can tell himself right now is what he's feeling: confused and doubtful of himself.

The sound of his doorknob clicking and his door creaking snaps him out of his guilt trance, turning his sights at Jen now leaving the room. "It was nice knowing you, Ivan. Hope we meet in a more... casual endeavor someday." She spoke while all Ivan could do was remain seated while watching her go. Before she closes the door, however, she suddenly comments, "Cute cat."

Her words shock him again as he turns around and sees that the blue cat in his room earlier has returned, stepping forth through to window of his room, shaking it's head and body to get rid of the dust and dirt that had gathered around it's fur throughout the day.

The sound of the door closing and the knob clicking, telling Ivan that Jennifer had left, was completely ignored by him as he now focused on the feline on his desk.

"Where the heck have you been?" Ivan scolds the cat, standing up from his seat to pick it up and place it back under his table before facing the feline.

To the dismay of the red ring slinger, the cat gives him one long, awkward glare, not uttering a meow or purr, and turning away, jumping off the desk and onto the floor may before resting and taking a nap.

It was strange for Ivan to watch this cat basically act like a human, annoyed with him, and ignoring him completely, but he knew it was pointless to scold the feline, considering it would most likely ignore him again anyway.

With a sigh, Ivan takes off his jacket and throws it onto his bed before heading for his bathroom to brush his teeth and take a shower.

Unbeknownst to him, however, the cat opens his eyes, perks it's head up to look around, as if trying to see if Ivan was no longer in the same room, and starts licking it's paws...

... it's blood soaked paws, with small chunks of meat still sticking to it.

* * *

The following morning, Ivan slept in and decided not to go to work, needing some time to process everything that had just happened yesterday.

Mr. Ling, having noticed that Ivan didn't come to the store, drove to his apartment together with his daughter, Lei, to check on him. Ivan gave the excuse that he got attacked last night on his way home and was fortunately saved by She Hulk, so now he's still recovering. Mr. Ling, being the sentimental old man he is, understands and tells Ivan he'll just call his other store clerk to watch for the day before leaving Ivan's quarters, but not before the young girl Lei gives him a loving hug and told her "big brother" to be healthy again.

While he didn't like trying to make excuses to get out of work, at the very least, Ivan didn't lie to his boss. He told him the truth while simply leaving out the parts where he himself fought with his own superpowers and that She Hulk is now an... acquaintance? He's not really sure himself what his relationship with Jennifer is, but that's not his problem. What he needs is to think over what she had asked from him.

Getting up from his bed while still in his boxers and tank top, Ivan stretches his arms to wake up the rest of his body. And after a brief yawn, he heads inside his bathroom to take a shower.

The sound of the shower knob turning and the water pouring unto the tiles of the bathroom awakens the blue furred cat, raising it's head and turns it to look at the open doorway where Ivan had gone to to bathe himself. For some odd reason, the cat narrows his eyes, as if it suspected something, but it soon stopped and stands on all fours again, stretching itself to get it's muscles moving once again before shaking itself to completely wake itself up.

In yet another strange look at it's behavior, the cat sits down and looks at the bathroom doorway. It waited there, staring at it intensely, like it was waiting for something.

It took 2 minutes for the cat to wait to finally stop and rolls it's eyes, seemingly annoyed, before jumping onto Ivan's desk again and out the window adjacent to it.

After a couple more minutes, Ivan finally exits the bathroom, a towel over his waist, covering everything below it but his ankles and feet. Rubbing his eyes after accidentally getting water in them, he blindly feels his way towards his closet and eventually reaches the handle, opening it while his eyes eventually recover, a bit red due to the rubbing he did to it, and opens them to scan through his clothes...

Until...

"I like what I see."

The deep, contralto voice of a woman suddenly spoke up out of nowhere, which makes Ivan jump, turn around and aim his ring at where he thought he heard the voice from, and sure enough, a woman sits on his chair, facing him with legs crossed.

The woman has short, silver hair with strands of black on her bangs, covering her forehead. On her is a yellow jumpsuit of sorts, underneath some belts and sashes over her body carrying knives, daggers and small firearms like pistols, uzis, a grapple hook launcher and a small grenade launcher strapped on her right hip. She also has modified military gloves with sharpened, tiger-like claws on each finger tip and what seems to be bladed knuckle dusters painted gold. One good look at her and you can tell that you do not want to hug this woman, lest you'll be turned into a pin cushion.

"Naked and bare... very vulnerable. So many places to stick my blades into you." The woman taunts Ivan, which only made him growl and gives her a deadly glare. "Calm down, pretty boy. I'm here to talk, not fight."

Ivan clenches his teeth and bares them like a wild animal's fangs, maintaining his glare as he keeps his ring targeted at her. "Who the hell are you?!" he yells, his ring glowing bright.

"Beatta Dubiel. Personal assassin of The Big Man." The woman, Beatta, answers without hesitation, staying seated and unafraid of Ivan's threats with his ring. "And can you put the ring down? I'm not interested in your jewelry."

The red ring slinger, however, refuses to concede. He kept his aim true and his ring glows as he stares his intruder down with a glare straight through her very soul, the anger within him commanding him to tear it out if she tries anything. "Like hell!" he growls back. "I'm not gonna put this away until you get out of my room before I get pissed off!"

"Then I'll keep it short, boy. We're here to offer you a friendly handshake." Beatta responds.

"...What?" says Ivan, befuddled by her words and so caught off guard that he loses his grip on his fist with the ring, which itself ceasing to glow while Ivan eventually drops his arm to his side.

The assassin makes a smile on her lips, seeing her target slowly playing along. "It was very stupid of you to leave Shocker alive. He told us what you did to his team. Beat Ricochet into submission and burned Ox's skin off. I'm surprised you didn't kill them. But now we know what you are. Another one of those super freaks."

"I'm nothing like them." Ivan replies.

With a chuckle, Beatta stands up from the chair she sat on, pushing it away from her as she approaches Ivan, her arms crossed while keeping eye contact. "You're right. You're ruthless and you'll do what it takes to get the job done. Shocker said you burned Ox because he put you in one of his famous strange holds. Big guy's a hugger."

The red ring slinger growls under his gritted teeth and grips both fists hard as he glares at the woman in front of him and demands, "Get to your point!"

"Very well then. We're not here to kill you, little man. We're here to offer you a job." says the bladed woman.

"I — Wait, 'we'?"

On cue with his question, The sound of metal clanking onto each other caught his attention as all of a sudden, a strange, yellowish green ooze drips from his ceiling, falling directly near his feet. This bizarre thing causes Ivan to look up to see a woman in green armor with yellow details like a scorpion shaped emblem on her chestplate and her yellow mask over her eyes. She has sharp claws on her armored hands, clinging to the ceiling while what seems to be magnetic boots are also helping her maintain her position above Ivan. But the strangest part of her is the fact that she seems to have a metallic scorpion tail, completely prehensile, grafted onto the back of her armor like a spine extending out, with her stinger dripping with literal venom.

Ivan instinctively backs away at the sight of this scorpion woman but the sound of his door creaking and his door knob turning halts him on his tracks and made him jump, spin briefly to face who's behind him and see a 6 foot tall man decked out in silver armor. The way his armor is shaped and designed invokes that of a Japanese samurai. He had a red Sun as his own symbol on his chest, with the six different Sun rays extending outward and over the rest of his chestplate. He has a sword strapped to his belt and on his left side as his right hand is placed over the handle. Over his head, however, is not a samurai helmet, but strange, menacing helmet that covers his entire face, with only glowing red eyes showing. On his back are two extra, shorter swords, sheathed and ready to be used.

"Red, meet Silver Samurai and Lady Scorpion. My partners in this little... Band of Baddies, so to speak." Beatta explains the presence of the arachnid woman and the futuristic shogun warrior that are now in his room. "And as per the Big Man's request, we want you in this team. You're too good for his Enforcers but you can't be just another mook. Not only that, but the Big Man would very much prefer to have you as an ally than have another enemy."

"This is a waste of time. He will not join us. We should just kill him now!" Silver Samurai spoke in a deep, modulated voice, with an extra techno filter to it that seems to be provided by the helmet. "Then the boss would have one less enemy to worry about!"

"Keep your mouth shut, Shin. I told you I'd do the talking." Beatta scolds the samurai, whose real name seems to be Shin. Ivan took a mental note of this while gripping his right hand, the one with his ring, hard.

With a small growl, Silver Samurai retorts, "It would be so easy. He's vulnerable right now! Carmilla is right above him and we're both blocking his two exit points!"

Ivan took another note. Lady Scorpion's real name is Carmilla. If he can reach Jennifer later, assuming he comes out of this alive, perhaps they can look up who Beatta, Shin and Carmilla are. For now, he concentrates on observing this situation and how he can fight back before they notice, considering he's still bare naked and only has a towel over his waist, meaning all their weapons can hit him from nearly any angle and it would most likely be fatal.

"Didn't I tell how he handled the Enforcers, you idiot?! Ox thought he was vulnerable too. Now the cops have him and he can't even move his arms anymore! Now shut up and let me do my job!" Beatta finally had enough of Silver Samurai, yelling at him so loud, it made the armored individual shrink to himself and back away. Even though it's not visible, Ivan could tell Shin is basically sweating under all his armor.

All of a sudden, Ivan hears a chuckle above him and looks up to see and hear Lady Scorpion managing a small chuckle while looking at Silver Samurai, as if him being humbled gave her joy.

But the young man's attention was caught again when Beatta snaps her fingers in front of his face, snapping him out of his stupor to once again ask, "Well? Are you in or is this going to be difficult for us?"

"... If I join, what will happen to me?" Ivan asks back.

"First and foremost, you'll be settled in with a much better living quarters. The Big Man prefers his followers to be in good condition so that when a job comes, they're in perfect shape." Beatta reveals, playing along with Ivan and see if she can sell this more to him and convince him further. "Second, you'll be part of our group. You'll be working for me, who works for the Big Man. meaning, you answer to me, you answer to him. If he gives YOU orders and I give something else, you do what HE tells you first. Always priotize hit request, regardless of what happens to us."

"That sounds unfair to the rest of you, don't you think?" Ivan points out, but he gets surprised when Lady Scorpion's tail suddenly lowers and extends and she uses the back of her stinger to caress Ivan's cheek in a condescending manner.

"We do not question the Big Man. He has never been wrong, and therefore, gave us no reason to disobey, even at the cost of our lives." Lady Scorpion finally spoke, her tone showing a bit of raspiness but was still comprehensible.

"There used to be six of us..." Silver Samurai adds, but he leans on the door frame and looks away, silently lamenting to himself. This did not escape Ivan's notice, more than the reveal of their names. Silver Samurai — or rather — Shin seems to be distraught about the three other teammates they once had. This might be worth exploring later.

For now, Ivan asks, "And the third?"

"You'll be compensated for what you do, and the more you impress the boss, the more he'll reward you. And he'll know. He has eyes and ears everywhere. You'll earn quadruple the amount of what you owe now... at minimum." Beatta replies and finally offers Ivan a handshake, reaching out her arm for him to take. "So... are you one of us... Or will you make this difficult?"

Ivan, who already knows he won't agree to them, needed to ask, "...Different question. Your boss sent the Enforcers to attack Sh- I mean, Attorney Walters last night. What will happen to her? And her client?"

"What else? Unlike you, she's a fixed obstacle, not a hurdle we can just take away." Silver Samurai finally looks back to the conversation and responds to Ivan.

"And her client had the guts to try and topple the skyscraper we have built with the boss." Lady Scorpion adds to her companion's words.

With a smirk, Beatta finishes her comrades' words and says, "They're not part of the deal. They die. In fact, they're due to die today."

With this revelation, Ivan gave a harder glare at the bladed woman. Words were no longer spoken in the room as the only thing that can be heard now is the metal clicking within Carmilla's mechanical tail and the noises of traffic outside the window.

Silver Samurai could not take this silence and Ivan's hesitation to give a straight answer, so he began reaching for his sword on his side.

All of a sudden...

"Then I'm in."

"Really?" Beatta, still a bit surprised Ivan agrees out of the blue, but a bit happy he finally answers their offer.

"It'd be a fucking pain in the ass to have you freaks chase me around town, trying to kill me, if I refuse. No way in hell I'm letting that ruin my sleep so I might as well just join you guys. So I'm in." Ivan explains why he agrees and finally shakes Beatta's hand.

Chuckling and smiling, Beatta shakes his hand with small glee and keeps eye contact with him. "Good dog. We'll send someone to pick you up tomorrow. Pack up and leave all this garbage you call your 'home' behind."

"Smart. Keep that up, you'll remain in one piece." Silver Samurai comments.

"Yeah. Sure." was the red ring slinger's response, his hand finally losing its grip over Beatta's hand as they let go of each other.

As the armor clad warrior and the arthropod themed assassin join their leader, Beatta speaks to Ivan more, telling him, "Starting tomorrow, your name is still your own, but only we can call you that. From that point on, to the rest of the world. Your name is... Red Ringer."

"... That's a stupid name." Ivan responds in a dead tone, his eyebrows furrowing that causes Beatta to laugh and shrug.

"I am admittedly bad at original names. Shin here got his codename from his pops and Carmilla just ripped off her codename from a supervillain from Queens."

Noticing her wording, Ivan took a wild guess about Beatta, and realizing this, he spoke out his thoughts by asking her, "So you didn't name them... Which means you don't have a name for yourself because you admitted you're bad it."

"Correct guess."

"So what do they call you?"

His question made Beatta's eyes light up, like that of a child presented with a gift, only, she looks more malicious than endearing. The simple smile formed on her lips grew into a grin while she crosses her arms and spoke only one word to Ivan.

"Bloodlust."

The red ring bearer had no time to comment or react to her introduction when Silver Samurai suddenly takes out a small pellet and tosses it down on the floor, exploding into smoke that conceals him and his two lady companions and depriving Ivan of vision of them. As he coughs and waves away the smoke away from him, he growls and swings his right hand, clearing a good chunk of the smoke before aiming his ring at their location.

To his surprise, the trio of assassins had vanished without a trace, the smoke in his room slowly dispersing as it is exposed to the wind coming from outside his window.

"Gone..." He whispers, gripping his fist hard as the glow of his ring weakens. With a growl, he drops the towel around his waist and runs to his closet, opening it and rummaging through all his clothes so he can find a set to put on and get dressed so he can leave and tell Attorney Walters what transpired.

In a hurry, his new set of clothes are now comprised of a blue jacket on top of a red shirt with yellow outlines on the sleeves, as a well as dark blue pants and the same shoes he wore yesterday. As expected, the red ring is still present on his right hand's middle finger. Now fully dressed, he didn't bother combing his messy hair as he grabs Jen's card on his table, as well as his wallet, and puts it in the hidden pocket inside his jacket, grabbing his keys on the nearby rack before leaving through the door, locking it before closing as he heads out.

But after passing through the hallway leading to the stairs and already stepping on the first step down, he suddenly stops. After what had just happened, Ivan found himself immediately going to warn Jennifer without a second thought. Hesitation suddenly fills every fiber in his body the more he thought about this as one dire question clouds his mind: Why _did _he suddenly thought of helping her?

He doesn't even know her that much, nor did he ever say he wants to be involved at all. In fact, she can, more than likely, take care of herself. She does seem stronger than her. But... why does he have this urge to help her the moment those thugs threatened her life?

"Hey! Idiot! Are you listening to me?!"

Ivan snaps out of his trance when he hears someone yelling at him. Once his thoughts are much clearer, he found himself...

..._already outside the apartment_!

To add to his shock, someone pulls on his arm and makes him turn around, which turns out to be the desk receptionist at the apartment as she yells at him, "I've been calling out your name but you just kept walking, asshole! Stop ignoring me! I thought you were sick! Did you lie to mister Ling?"

Her words fell on deaf ears, unfortunately, as Ivan noticed that... That he seems to have kept walking even when he hesitated in going to Jennifer. Despite what his mind told him otherwise, his guts and subconscious put his body on autopilot, as if begging him to help and warn her. What is with him? Why can't he even identify why he's doing this?

...No. Why is he even questioning this? This is stupid. Jennifer and her client are being threatened at this very moment. Whatever his stance is with them, whether he plans to be part of the case or not, doesn't matter now. He needs to warn them!

Ignoring the receptionist, he pulls his arm away from and runs, taking himself near the road so he can call for a passing cab. "Hey! Get back here!" The receptionist shouts in a futile attempt to call Ivan back, but she is ignored when he finally got a taxi and rides at the backseat, closing the door behind him.

"Can you take me to this address?" Ivan speaks to the rotund driver at the wheel and shows him the card.

After a brief read on it, the driver hands back the business card Jen gave to Ivan and replies to his new passenger with a cheery tone, "Can do!" The driver steps on the gas and drives as Ivan rests his back against his seat and puts on a seat belt.

_Attorney..._

* * *

Unbeknownst to him, however, Bloodlust, Silver Samurai and Lady Scorpion are actually still in the vicinity as they watch Ivan from atop a different and higher building near his apartment. Having seen him take a cab, they immediately start being suspicious and think of the worst possible scenario.

"I knew he was lying!" Shin speaks his mind as he pulls out the two swords from the sheathes on his back.

"Of course he was. I read his micro-expressions. He was feeding us what we wanted to hear so we'd leave him be." Carmilla comments, commanding her tail to twist and turn as if to show her contempt for the red ring slinger.

They both get surprised, however, when Beatta snickers and crosses her arms together. "You don't need to guess or read his micro-expressions to tell he was lying. He agreed too fast, and that was after he asked what we were going to do to Atty. Jennifer Walters and her client. He was clearly trying to read us before eventually getting rid of us by telling us he's in."

"What's the plan then, boss?" Shin asks.

"Cut him off. Carmilla, deal with pretty boy. Shin, you're with me. We're going to fillet the big green lady." Bloodlust commands as she pulls out two serrated daggers from either side of her belt and flips them in her hands.

Lady Scorpion, receiving her orders, licks her lips as her tail curls over her and the venom from her stinger drips almost erotically. "**With pleasure!**" She spoke, her voice seemingly changing from a light but raspy tone to a malicious, deep and baritone one as a mask forms around her face, concealing her identity. The arachnid themed assassin then jumps from her spot and lands on another building and repeats this, hopping from one roof to another as she follows Ivan's cab down the road.

* * *

After a brief drive, Ivan's taxi takes a turn as he looks out his window, tapping rapidly on his thigh due to his anxiousness to get to the jade lawyer growing the longer he remains out of her reach. He curses himself for not having a cellphone, but also feels stupid he didn't just ask the receptionist to borrow the telephone for a bit to make a call. But then again, considering his relationship with her, she may have refused and call him names again.

Still, he really wishes he could have just called her right then and there.

As he thinks of this, as if fate itself smiles upon him, his cab stops and halts for traffic, just beside a sidewalk that has a payphone on it. His eyes open wide as he found a way to call Jen. Looking back at the road ahead, he observes that the traffic jam he and his driver are in now is not even moving an inch. Taking advantage of this, Ivan tells his driver, "I need to make a phone call. Can you wait for me?"

"Sure but make it quick, kid. Don't know when this jam will, well, unjam." The driver responds.

Silently thanking him, Ivan then steps out of the cab, runs to the payphone and takes out his wallet. Inserting a quarter into the slot, he takes the handset of the phone and dials in the number in Jennifer's card. He takes a careful listen as the phone rings. After three rings, Jennifer hasn't answered yet, which began to worry Ivan. After the sixth ring, he hands began getting cold as his sweat is starting to drop. Gripping the phone harder, Ivan grit his teeth as he waits for Jen to answer.

_Come on, attorney... Come on, Jen. Please pick up!_

But once the seventh ring occurs...

"Law Offices of Jennifer Walters! This is Atty. Jennifer Walters! Sorry for the late answer. I just finished breakfast."

Ivan's hopes are uplifted when she finally answers, her voice calming him down a tad bit as he sighs. "Jen, it's me, Ivan."

"Ivan? I knew you'd call!"

"No time to celebrate. I need you to listen closely..."

Ivan did his best to explain what had happened and made sure to keep it as brief as possible. From the Big Man's assassins offering him a place among them to their threat towards Jen and her client. Understanding the situation completely, the superhero lawyer responds, "I see. Well, I certainly don't want my office trashed when they come for. My client's in witness protection with a friend of mine so he's safe. Stay there. I'm getting dressed."

"Wait, why are you coming here?" Ivan asks holding his wallet close to him.

"Take the fight to the bad guys. I'm not about to let some punks ambush me in my own turf. Stay there and stay safe."

"Right. Okay. You too."

"Oh, and, uhhh, Ivan?"

"Yeah?"

"Heh. You called me 'Jen'."

Ivan makes a tiny gasp as his eyes widen a tad bit, his grip on the handset loosening as he hears Jen giggle at the other side of the phone before she eventually drops the call, making Ivan place the phone back to the slot.

"I called her Jen..." He whispers to himself, looking down at the floor. letting it sink in. With a sigh, Ivan was about to leave the phone booth, but when he goes to put his card of Jennifer into his wallet, he notices a scrunched up piece of paper inside one of his wallet's card slots. Pulling it out, it turns out to be a different telephone number, the paper actually folded in half. Curious, Ivan unfolds the piece of paper and sees that it's a phone number to call for the services of the Heroes for Hire. It even has the picture of Luke and several other people on it above their logo.

At first, all the paper reminds Ivan of the time Luke, Danny and Misty have wanted him to join them so he can be among friends and have decent work, but now...

...now, it gives him an idea.

Taking another quarter from his wallet and puts it in the payphone, Ivan dials in the number for the Heroes for Hire. After three rings, someone picks up the phone on the other side. In the tone of a female voice, the person on the phone asks, "Heroes For Hire. Need heroes, we're there for you!"

"Colleen?"

"Ivan? Hi! It's been a while! How are you?"

"Perfectly fine. Listen, I might need some help. I promise to pay later."

"Nonsense! You're a friend. Just tell us what's wrong."

"Well, see, I'm at 12th Avenue right now and—"

The red ring slinger does not get to finish his sentence when all of a sudden, the screams of people catches his attention and he turns around, just in time for Lady Scorpion to land and utterly destroy the roof of one of the cars in the traffic jam. Her appearance causes everyone in the area to panic, as every civilian moves out of the way and run away from her while the ones in vehicles exit their respective vessels to run from the villainess as well, including the driver from Ivan's cab earlier.

"**You betrayed our trust, boy! For that, I will drown you in my poison!**" The masked assassin yells and flails her tail around before swinging it as it sprays her poison everywhere. On the road, on vehicles, on street signs and on street lights.

Ivan, seeing that Lady Scorpion intends to kill him, lets go of the phone he holds as makes the ring on his finger glow before bathing himself in crimson light. As the red glow diminishes, Ivan is back in his strange red and black "hero" suit, with the logo of his ring on his chest.

"Ivan? Ivan, are you still there?" Colleen, the one that answered Ivan's call, spoke but Ivan can no longer hear her after letting go of the phone.

Ivan takes a few steps forward until the sound of sizzling seizes his concentration, making him look to his side to see that the poison Carmilla had splashed onto random spots began melting them away. Metal, asphalt and stone. Lady Scorpion's poison isn't simply toxic.

It's also acidic!

"**Be careful, little red. My toxins are dangerous, whether they're lathered on the skin or enter the body.**" Lady Scorpion warns while also mocks Ivan before crouching down on the car she broke and suddenly jumping forward in breakneck speed, pouncing towards Ivan as he instinctively erects a force field around his body as the assassin tackles him into the payphone booth behind him before the two end up through the window and wall of the building adjacent to the booth.

As Ivan lies on the concrete and glass after that attack, Lady Scorpion stays atop him and raises her right hand and unleashes her metallic claws from her finger tips. However, soon as she swipes it at Ivan's face, her claws shatter and scatter against the force field around his body. She takes a quick look at her claws, like she had just lost and broken some fingernails, and it enrages her, causing her to scream in rage and has her scorpion tail prop up and ready to have the stinger stab Ivan in his chest.

The red ring bearer has no idea if this stinger is much stronger than her claws, so he does not risk it, swing both hands at his chest just in time to catch the stinger between both hands and uses all his strength to push it back. As he does so, he can hear Carmilla's almost cat-like hissing through her mask as she has the tail push further, the stinger an inch away from his chest.

Unfortunately for the arachnid assassin, she notices that Ivan's eyes are beginning to shift from his normal blue into a glowing, dark red as he growls at her with gritted teeth before he finally bellows out a rage fueled roar as he suddenly grips the stinger harder before tossing her aside to his left, making her crash into a different wall inside the building.

Lady Scorpion had no chance to rest as she slowly slides down the wall she was thrown into, Ivan jumps at her and swing his fist with the ring on it, laying a punch that Carmilla is forced to block with her tail.

An explosion of dust and rubble is unleashed from Ivan's attack as he and Carmilla end back up outside, the assassin skidding backwards on her feet as Ivan lands back in front of her. "Why isn't your tail breaking?!" The red clad warrior yells at her.

The assassin mockingly laughs at his question as she twirls her tail around while giving him a glare. "**My tail is made of a special metal that not many people can break. Why do you think I can contain my acidic poison inside it?**" Carmilla explains before running at Ivan on all fours, her tail and stinger aimed at him, shooting her toxins at him like a power hose.

The red warrior growls in frustration as he strafes to his right, running sideways to dodge the toxins as he fires red energy bolts from his ring to attack his foe, who is unfortunately agile enough to dodge every single attack.

Lady Scorpion's acidic poison strikes the walls, street lights and signs and empty cars as Ivan does his best to dodge it, forcing him to keep moving behind cover as he also kept shooting with his ring, the shots he miss ending up putting a hole into a wall or a different vehicle every time. However, the villainess changes tactics when she suddenly laughs and shoots her toxin on a truck's gas tank, exposing the gasoline inside and spreading it across the street. She then shoots at more of the vehicles and their tanks, spilling more gasoline in the area.

Ivan is confused at what she's trying to do, but it can't be good, so he continues his barrage of energy bolts that the assassin still dodges, ducks under and jumps over. However, she suddenly stops by hanging atop a lamp post as she extends her tail to the floor.

Ivan growls and aims his ring at her, thinking she had just exposed herself and left herself vulnerable by staying still, but as he charges his energy into the ring, he is astonished, his eyes turning from red to blue, as Lady Scorpion waves goodbye at him mockingly. At first, he is confused at what she's trying to do, but notices that her tail is still extended towards the floor. It was then that he finally realizes what she had been doing.

The streets is now filled with gasoline...

...and Carmilla has her stinger scratch onto the asphalt, creating sparks that ignite the nearest gasoline puddle and creating a great flame that runs towards the rest of the gas inside the vehicle, making it explode and spread fire further on the other puddles of gasoline.

This creates a chain reaction that makes every car, truck and motorcycle that got stuck in the traffic jam explode like a domino effect, which reminds Ivan what he had done to himself. By taking cover behind the vehicles...

...he had surrounded himself with them.

With only a small window left to react as the explosions are now coming at him like a wave of fire, Ivan is forced to shield himself from the domino effect by making a small dome of energy around himself, just in time for everything to blow up all around him. But the explosions were so great, he didn't have time to strengthen his shield as it eventually broke and shatter, blowing him back as the loud explosions turn into an irritating ringing in his ears while his vision fades into white, blinded by all the fire around him.

As the ringing in his ears slowly stopped and his vision returns, he growls to himself, finding that he is now lying face down on the floor while fire and metal surrounds him. He pushes himself off the street and stands back up, groggy and injured as he turns around to see Lady Scorpion walk through the flames, approaching him. "**What's wrong, red? Too hot to handle? Don't worry. It will be all over soon...**" She spoke, nearing her foe as Ivan aims his ring at her once again. To retort, Carmilla laughs and aims her stinger at him, her toxin dripping with each step she takes towards her prey. "**Don't worry. I'll be gentle...**"

"Can't say the same for us then."

Lady Scorpion hears a voice directly behind her, turning on her defensive instincts and turns around in a blur as she thrusts her stinger at whoever was behind her.

Which only terrifies her when this new foe catches her stinger without effort. And with one hand, no less. Getting a good view of her new foe, Carmilla panics internally as she sees a 5'7 woman with brown hair and eyes, wearing a brown leather jacket concealing a black shirt underneath, with khaki pants and black boots as well on her person. The woman glares at the assassin as she holds her stinger like it was nothing more than a wooden stick, to the point that Carmilla can't even pull it away from her anymore.

"Carmilla Black. AKA, Lady Scorpion. AKA, Thasanee Rappaccini. Former AIM test subject, mutated and cybernetically enhanced by your mother, Monica, escaped from AIM then went MIA. People thought you died but I had my suspicions you and the Big Man's newest poison bitch were one and the same. Am I wrong?" The mysterious woman asks as she playfully twists and shakes Lady Scorpion's stinger around like it was some kind of toy.

"**Who the hell are you?!**" Carmilla yells out of anger and annoyance before attempting to striek her with her claws from her left hand.

However, before it makes contact with the woman, a yellow blur gets in between them and her claws break again on contact with something. The assassin gasps and looks up to see that Luke Cage had gotten between her and the woman behind him, wagging his finger at him to tell her it's futile.

"She's the hammer. And I'm the shield. And you're the nail." Luke says to the arachnid themed psychopath as he brushes the blades from Carmilla's claws off his chest. On his cue, the mysterious woman then pulls in Lady Scorpion towards her by her stinger before striking Carmilla in her face with a devastating punch, finally knocking the assassin out as she is sent flying and lands on her back in front of Ivan.

Breathing heavily, Ivan looks at the two new arrivals as they walk towards him. "Luke... and Jessica?" He asks them as Luke puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Man, did she hit you so hard, you have to ask who we are?" Luke jokes to his friend.

Jessica, which seems to be the woman's name is, scoffs and crosses her arms, giving Ivan what can only be described as a disappointed glare. "D'you seriously lose to someone like her?"

"I'm still trying to get the hang of this..." Ivan replies, showing off his ring to the two.

"Suuure." Jessica mocks him while rolling her eyes.

"Good thing you called. Colleen noticed you stopped talking halfway through your conversation but you mentioned where you are so we all went on ahead to find you. We were the nearest." Luke explains the situation.

"Wait, all of you?"

"Yep."

Ivan turns around upon hearing a response that didn't come from either Luke or Jessica. And what he sees surprises him.

In front of him is a group of people gathering together, with some coming from the rooftops above while some come running in.

One of them is a man wearing what appears to be a green gi with yellow cuffs and collar. He also has black, fingerless gloves and boots, as well as a yellow mask over his head and eyes. The most significant attribute he has, however, is a stylish, black dragon tattoo over his chest, with its tail extending down to his abdomen.

With him is an African American woman wearing a red jumpsuit held by a golden belt. She had a stylish afro on her head as well as two pistol, one on each side, on her belt. Like the yellow and green clad ninja with her, she also has a trait that stands out: a gold, metal right arm in place of one made of flesh.

From the rooftops came down a man in a red suit that acted as armor plating over a black jumpsuit he wears underneath. On his breastplate were two letter Ds together, with one of them being higher than the other. The man held two billie clubs in each hand as he wore a helm over his head that covered the top half of his face, including his nose, while this helm had 2 small horns that made him resemble the devil himself.

And finally, from a white motorcycle driving down the burning road, a woman clad in a white suit while wearing a blue scarf around her neck that flowed in the wind pulls the breaks of her bike and slow it to a halt. She had a sheathed katana by her side as she steps off the two wheeled vehicle to remove her helmet and reveal herself to be of Asian descent while her long, auburn hair flows with her scarf.

"Hi, Ivan." The woman with the katana cheerfully tells the man with the red ring as he held his right arm to ease the pain he received from the explosions earlier.

"You brought everyone? A bit excessive..." Ivan comments as Luke helps him walk to the group of new arrivals, with Jessica beside them.

The woman with the katana rolls her eyes as she and her companions approach and meet the three of them halfway before helping Ivan stand back straight. "What, no 'Thanks for calling the cavalry, Colleen!' or 'Glad to see you again, Colleen'?" She sarcastically asks him as she dusts off Ivan's shoulders before lifting his chin up. "I told you. You're a friend. We don't leave friends behind."

"Although, from the smoke and gas I smell in the air, plus the sound of the fire crackling around us, seems like you could've used our help far earlier." The man with the devil horns joke as he spins his clubs and place them on his utility belt.

"Very funny, Matt..." Ivan whispers while glaring at the other man in red, seemingly named Matt.

But Matt smirks and snickers before telling him, "I still heard that."

"I know you did."

"So..." The woman with the afro finally spoke as she places her left arm on the man in yellow and green tights to rest herself on him. "We done here? Took care of the big bad guy lady."

"Actually, Misty, scorpions are more arachnids than bugs." The man she chose as her arm rest corrects her with a smile on his face, earning him a deck to his side by Misty, the woman in red, with her elbow.

"Its good to see you, Danny." Ivan says to the man in green, Danny, who responds by placing his right fist on his left palm and takes a small greeting bow for Ivan.

"Likewise, Ivan." Danny replies.

"So what do we do with her?" Luke asks and gestures the unconscious Lady Scorpion on the ground, with the team surrounding her and getting a good look of the crazed assassin.

Misty lifts Carmilla's mechanical tail with her own cybernetic arm as she pulls out a pair of orange goggles from one of her pouches on her golden belt and puts it on. It turns out to be a highly advanced scanner as a heads up display appears on the visor of her new eyewear, scanning Carmilla's tail thoroughly for a few seconds before finishing it's analysis.

"Wow. Girl's got Vibranium on her tail. You're lucky she didn't get to stick in you. No way even you could have blocked a direct blow with this thing." The cyborg lady explains to Ivan before her mechanical arm starts vibrating and all of a sudden, Lady Scorpion's tail began melting like molten metal, dripping on the floor as Misty drops the tail like a used piece of paper.

"Vibranium? The same metal your arm is made of?" Ivan asks.

"Not quite. Mine's Antarctic Vibranium. But that's not what's important right now." Misty replies as she puts away her goggles and takes out hand cuffs before turning Carmilla on her back and placing her hands behind her, cuffing them together to make sure she is restrained once she wakes up.

"Agreed. Lady Scorpion doesn't work alone. She works together with Bloodlust and Silver Samurai on operations. So if she's alone here fighting you, the other two have a target somewhere else. She was just meant to slow you down." Jessica deduces, which immediately reminds Ivan, causing his eyes to widen.

"Jen!"

Raising a brow, Colleen looks at Ivan as she responds with an understandably confused, "Who's Jen?"

"Atty. Jennifer Walters. They're after her!" says Ivan before running off so he can get to his jade skinned friend.

"Jenny?" spoke Matt, as if he knew who Jen is. "I wouldn't worry about her. She can take care of herself."

Jessica, however, places a hand on Matt's shoulder as she walks past him to follow Ivan, telling him, "No, he's right to worry. Shin Harada, the Silver Samurai, inherited his father's mutant power of generating Tachyon fields around his body, which allows him and anything he wields to cut through anything, including She Hulk's near impervious skin."

"You telling me this silver foo' can cut through me too? Damn." Luke comments.

Ivan, however, kept running down the burning road as he intends to go to Jennifer. "I didn't know he could do that, nor do I care if he does. Jen needs our help!" He spoke out loud, heard by his friends as he continues his fast pace.

"He's certainly motivated." Danny comments with arms crossed but Misty suddenly pats him on his back as she starts walking too.

"So should we. Come on." Misty tells him, making the green ninja nod and follow Ivan.

Colleen watches them head off, but she eyes Ivan carefully. Looking at him now, she is reminded of when they first met. The thought of it makes her smile as she chuckles to herself, but that's not important right. What _is _important is that she and the her friends reach She Hulk before it's too late.

Putting helmet back on, she jumps on the seat of her bike, starts the engine and revs up her motorcycle before driving it towards Ivan. She passes by him and surprises him as she stops the bike in front of him before patting on the vacant space behind her on her seat. "Get on, Red." says the white clad sword wielding warrior to her red ring bearing companion.

Ivan does not hesitate and hops on, holding onto Colleen's waist as she revs up her white bike once and drives it off down the road, leaving their friends behind.

"Times like these I'm grateful we have our own van." Danny comments as he and Misty turn a corner.

Seeing this, or in Matt's case, hearing it, Luke gestures Jessica and their red clad friend to follow Danny and Misty as he says, "Come on. Can't let them have all the fun."

"You two go ahead. I'm gonna call the fire department." Jessica answers, however, and casually walks towards the nearest fire hydrant on the sidewalk, hands in her pockets, before kicking the outlet cap off of it, sending a burst of water to shoot out of the hydrant. Jessica then pushes and turns the hydrant around with the same foot to aim the stream of water towards the fire, dousing it and weakling the flames.

"You sure, Jess?" Luke asks Jessica, a hand on her shoulder as a way to relax his partner.

Jessica nods, turning around to face the big guy, telling him in response, "Yeah. Go. Gotta make sure this fire doesn't spread and Carmilla doesn't escape."

"Okay. Be careful."

"I should be the one telling you that."

"We gotta go, Luke." Matt tells his friend, just in time for Misty and Danny to pull up in a black mini van.

"Gotcha." was the unbreakable man's response as the devil man enters the van. Before he joins them, Luke looks back at Jessica, who gives him a small nod that he responds in kind with a little smile added to the mix.

Upon finally stepping forth into the vehicle, Misty, the one on the wheel, drives off and takes the boys with her, leaving Jessica behind. She takes out a phone and dials 911 to call for an emergency, like she intended.

As he phone rings, she enters the building she had douse in water in to disperse the fire, waiting for whoever will pick up her call.

Once inside, she notices the building to be some kind of bar, as several tables and sets are scattered across the floor while several bottles of alcohol are rolling on the floor. Just as she crouched down, picks one of the bottles up, stands up and simply flicks the bottle's cap with her thumb, someone finally answers her call.

"911. What's your emergency?" A man on the other side of the call spoke, just in time for Jessica to take a huge swig of the bottle of alcohol she had taken. When he doesn't hear who calls for an emergency, the operator on the phone worries so he felt compelled to ask, "Hello? Are you okay? Is there a problem?"

In a miraculous few seconds, the woman with the super strength actually finishes the entire bottle, emptying it in no time before dropping it on the floor, shattering into brittle pieces as she responds to the operator while wiping her lips, "Yeah. I got several."

* * *

Meanwhile, down the road, Colleen speeds through traffic and passes by several vehicles while Ivan holds onto her. After noticing that her friend has not uttered a word since they had drove through several streets already, Colleen decides to start a topic, asking him, "So how'd you meet She Hulk?"

Ivan, his attention taken, looks at the katana wielding motorcyclist he's holding onto. "Terribly." was his response, which Colleen couldn't tell if he was snarking or actually being serious, which actually makes her laugh more.

"Okay then. By the way, if you wanted to reach her so badly, can't your ring make you fly?"

Her next question makes Ivan, all of a sudden, blush, a pink glow on his cheeks appearing as he looks away while Colleen swerved her bike to take a right turn. "...I'm... still bad flying..." he admits, his voice pitched lower like he didn't want to say it at all.

Colleen laughs again as she speeds up her bike and enter a tunnel, the sunlight blocked out as the lights of other vehicles inside this pathway, as well as the actual tunnel lights, were their only source of clear sight. "Well, I'm pretty it'd still be faster crossing through several streets."

"And driving there is faster than crashing into every building in Hell's Kitchen because you can't properly control your flight path." Ivan retorts.

"Touche, Red." Colleen admits before speeding through the tunnel, passing by other cars along the way.

"Besides, she said she's on her way here, we'll be meeting her halfway." Ivan adds, making Colleen smile.

She answers back, "Then this will be easier than we thought. Hold on, Red!"

* * *

Ivan's words rang true as Jennifer, now as her big green self in her black and purple lawyer outfit as she had tied her dark green hair into a ponytail, dodges a strike from Silver Samurai's twin blades.

The swordsman did not let up as he swung his swords in great speed and finesse that the jade giantess had barely enough time to react to each strike.

However, after careful observation, she notices that he leaves himself exposed whenever he goes for a heavy swing. And he only goes for one when he thinks Jen herself leaves herself open for an attack.

Noticing this, She Hulk intentionally lets her guard down by seemingly going for a superpowered punch herself, looking like she's going all out. To Shin, it leaves her open when he dodges the predictable attack as he swerves to his right and sidesteps the punch, which had enough force to fire a blast of wind in the direction She Hulk swung her fist, bowing back several parked cars off the bridge they're fighting on, each vehicle dropping to the water below.

Just when Shin thought he had the upper hand, he goes for a powerful swing as his arms glowed with yellow colored energy and bathes his sword in the same force. Unfortunately for him, She Hulk looks at him with a side eye before giving him a smug smile and a wink. The armored assassin had no time to process why she did what she did when Jennifer suddenly lifts her left leg up and kicks Silver Samurai on his side. Before he goes flying, the emerald beauty was fast enough to catch his arm that held his glowing blade before swinging her free hand into a karate chop onto the blade's flat side, cutting it in half as the top half of the sword flies into the water below as well, joining the cars that got knocked into it.

She Hulk then takes Shin's other sword from his hand and tosses him into a nearby lamp post. The superpowered lawyer then adds insult to injury by snapping the sword in half toss both the handle and the blade into the water as well.

Cracking her knuckles, She Hulk gives the samurai warrior a smile and boasts to him, "Got another one in ya, buddy?"

In a fit of anger, Silver Samurai draws his last and much longer sword from the sheathe on his harness and swings it down, unleashing a torrent of the same energy he was generating earlier as it travels across the ground like a wave of fire that She Hulk dodges by jumping to her right. The wave ends up cutting apart a different car that was behind the attorney instead, sawing the vehicle in half before each separated section falls down.

"Geez. Big sword. Compensating for something, silver spoon?" She Hulk mocks her armored foe but the response she receives is Silver Samurai yelling incoherently at her while swinging his blade wildly. Each attempted strike was now unpredictable as Shin had discarded actual technique into a violent tantrum, forcing Jennifer on the defensive.

During this assault, Beatta stood on the sidelines as she watches her colleague fight their priority target. Carefully observing Shin's movements, the way he was moving was indeed random, as the boy is practically throwing a tantrum, but using his smaller frame, he has the speed advantage against She Hulk. Each missed strike, he gains inch of distance towards her while all she can do is back away slowly. Using this as her basis for her observation, Beatta smiles, dictating in her head that Shin is about to wound Jen...

...right...

...about...

"...Now."

_**—SLASH!—**_

With a perfect slice, Silver Samurai manages to cut She Hulk's arms, injuring her and creating two stretched out slices on each arm as her green blood is spilled on her now cut open sleeves. Jen hisses as the sting of her new wounds causes her grip her fists hard. But she had no time to relax as Silver Samurai brings forth his sword and swings it down, ready to cut her in two. But Shin did not expect for the jade amazon to bring both of her hands together and catch the blade between both of her palms. The speed, reflexes and precision required to do this is extreme, so for someone like She Hulk to actually nail utterly blows Shin's mind. This unfortunately meant he's too dumbfounded and astonished to realive that the green goddess lifts her foot up and kicks him in the gut this time, forcing him to let go of his sword as he rockets towards a nearby building, crashing through the windows before losing consciousness from the sheer power of the Sensational woman.

"You're next, Shredder. You're gonna pay for wrecking my car. I just got that as a gift from the Fantastic Four." She Hulk taunts Beatta before throwing Shin's long sword off the bridge.

But before it drops into the water, Beatta smirks before taking out a grapple hook from her many firearms on her belt and fires it at the sword plummeting to the river below. The hook successfully grabs the katana by it's handle before Bloodlust reels it back like a whip, flipping and tossing the blade into the air before she raises her hand to catch it as it lands on her palm, obtaining the sword for herself. "I always wanted to play with Shin's sword." She snarks before entering a fighting stance with her sword.

"Gross." She Hulk replies. However, the moment she tried to lift her arms up for a fighting stance as well, she hisses and felt a burn on her arms. With one good look, she is shocked to see that her wounds have yet to heal, which is impossible to her! Thanks to her mutation, she is meant to have superhuman healing, so any injury she may obtain, as rare as that can happen, is suppose to be gone in mere seconds. But cuts from Shin's last attack has yet to subside from her arms.

"Surprised, big green?" says Bloodlust, placing the tip of the blade against the floor beneath her as she approaches She Hulk, getting the sword to scratch and spark against such a rough surface. "Shin's pops gave this little doodad to him when he died. Told us it can cut almost anything. But that's not all. This thing can also slow the natural healing power of anyone it cuts. What takes seconds to mend now takes days. And if I land a couple more slices, you'll be turned into She Hulk chunks. Then again... I wonder if you'll survive one clean cut on your neck?"

"Oh snap..." She Hulk mutters before Beatta takes out three pellets and throws them at her. The jade giantess instinctively blocks them but upon contact with her arms, they all explode into clouds of smoke that hinders She Hulk's view of the battlefield. As the smoke grew thicker, Jen is forced to stretch out her arms as wide as she can before swinging them onto each other in blinding speed, unleashing a thunder clap so powerful, it creates a shockwave from her palms that blew away all the smoke around her thanks to the amount of wind she creates.

But this was not the end of her problems as immediately after she regains vision on her surroundings, Beatta seemingly vanished during the time she couldn't see anything. Jen looks to her left, right, behind her then back in front but the assassin was gone. However, a shadow began looming over her as she notices something blocking the son above, making her look up to find Beatta in the air, having jumped over Jen as she suddenly throws a flashbang at her target, exploding once it fell to the floor beneath She Hulk, filling her ears with a loud ringing, as well as blinding her with bright, white light.

Dizzy and dazed, She Hulk covers her ears and shakes her head as she stumbles back, trying to get the effect of the flashback out of her head, all while Beatta lands on both feet, ready to cut her down. However, she is surprised when the green amazon suddenly, with eyes still shut, yells and punches the ground beneath them, creating an explosion of dust that rivals Bloodlust's initial triple smoke bomb earlier. This time, it was Beatta's turn to be blinded as the cloud of dust covers her line of sight. Desperate, she discards her blade momentarily and pulls out her uzis, firing directly into the wall of dust. She carefully listened to her bullets, checking to see if they hit anything. After several shots, she hits nothing. But for a brief second, she hears some of her bullets bounce off of something solid. Identifying where the sound came from, she puts her guns back on her hips and draws Shin's sword before charging through the smoke, just in time to find Jen still recovering from her blinded state.

But as soon she reached her target, a quick red blur drops from the sky and gets in between them. Beatta had no time to react as the identity of this red blur turns out to be Ivan as he gives Beatta glare with his glowing red eyes. Unfortunate for Bloodlust, while She Hulk is indeed slower than her...

...Ivan was faster.

Tightening his fist as he ring glows and engulfs his hand and arm with burning hot red energy, Ivan unleashes a forward punch that forces Beatta to block with her sword, the impact of the punch creating a devastating explosion that shatters every glass object nearby as Beatta is sent flying across the street and into the same building Shin was knocked into.

Speaking of which, Shin just wakes up in time to see his leader crash through the wall. As rubble and concrete fly, Bloodlust coughs up blood as she drops Silver Samurai's blade on the floor. The assassin leader could barely utter a word as she struggles to breathe while trying to move any of her limbs. The force of the attack Ivan subjected her to was so strong, she had lost all feeling from her limbs. Shin was lucky for his armor cushioning the blow She Hulk unleashed.

The Silver Samurai stands from his spot to approach his leader, but upon doing so, the sound of an engine and wheels grinding to a halt makes him look out of the Beatta-shaped hole his leader came through to see an angry Ivan, a newly recovered Jennifer and Colleen on her motorcycle heading towards their direction.

"You...!" Shin yells, grabbing his sword from the floor, ready for another bout. However, the moment he steps outside...

"S..Sh..Shin.. He..lp.."

The armored warrior ceases to move and turns around to see Beatta, reaching out for him with her right hand, blood spewing from lips and nose as she tries her best to call out for her companion. Shin is filled with utter shock and horror, seeing his team leader like this, humiliated and bleeding. He wants to step outside badly to cut down those fools that did this to her...

...but right now, she needs his help.

With a loud, crying yell, Shin swings his sword and slashes the support beams of the building they're in, causing it to start crumbling on top of them.

"No!" She Hulk cries at the sight this, thinking the samurai had given up all of hope and is driven to suicide. The jade lawyer jumps as hard as she could to reach the building in time in a single bound, but Shin had other plans.

As the structure begins to fall, he sheathes his sword back to his hip and carries his injured leader before taking what seems to be a ring on his left hand and twists the draconic emblem on it. After doing so, he and Beatta suddenly vanish after being bathed in white light, leaving behind nothing but smoke from the spot they disappeared from, just in time for the building to finally fall into nothing more than a pile of bricks and stone.

She Hulk lands in front of the debris, before using all her strength to pull away the debris and dig through them to find the two villains. As she does, Ivan eventually joins her side and uses the strength his ring provides him and moves some of the rubble as well. Alas, when they've take away nearly every big chunk, they did not find Silver Samurai and Bloodlust.

"...What now?" Ivan asks Jennifer, who sighs and walks away as she places a disappointed palm over her temple. All she could say was...

"...I don't know."

* * *

As the authorities put away Carmilla, keeping her in cuffs and her now destroyed scorpion tail separated from her, officers at the scene of the crime investigate what had happened as Ivan, Jennifer and the rest of the Heroes for Hire watch from the rooftops. The Sun still shines bright in noon while the group of unique individuals speak amongst themselves.

"Haven't had action like that in a long time." Jennifer, who seems to have discarded her ponytail to let her hair flow free as Colleen dresses the injuries on her arms. "Plus, I can't remember the last time I was ever injured at all. This is a good wake up call. Sword girl might have cit my head off with that freaky sword if it wasn't for you, Red."

"You shouldn't have been cut in the first place... Colleen was right. I should have flown. It would have been faster and we might have been able to stop them both easily and caught them..." came Ivan's response as he crosses his arms, resting his back against the door to this rooftop.

"Ah, cheer up, pal. At least you caught Lady Scorpion. She ain't stingin' nobody now." Luke replies, with Jessica drinking another bottle beside him.

Pulling the bottle away from her mouth, she comments, "You _we _caught Lady Scorpion. How'd a chump like her beat you?"

"I still have no idea how this stupid ring works." Ivan answers her question as he looks at his red ring, dispersing his "hero" suit to return to his regular clothing and his blue eyes. "And I'm not a skilled fighter like any of you guys. I just want to stay normal. Can't even take this ring off of my finger."

"Nothing normal about shooting lasers and vomiting napalm. Admit, Red. You're destined for greatness." Misty comments as Danny wraps an arm around her while she holds onto his bare chest.

The red ring slinger, however, sighs at her remark and looks away. "Is this another pitch at inviting me to the Heroes for Hire? Or Alias Investigations? Or whatever the hell you call it now."

"Alias is the sub division ran by me. The Heroes for Hire are the big leagues, in a manner of speaking." Jessica corrects him before taking another sip with her alcohol.

"Ivan, we wouldn't be inviting you for a reason. You're a friend and clearly, from what has happened today, you're in dire need of some. Your skills and abilities can be helpful for other people that need us. That need you." Danny tells Ivan.

Still in denial, however, Ivan tells him, "I'm no hero."

"So why'd you warn me?"

Ivan hears Jen speak just as Colleen finished wrapping up her wounds. She then approaches Ivan on his spot and adds, "Why'd you go through all that trouble just to find and rescue little old me? You knew I could take care of myself."

That was his question since yesterday and this morning. Why? Why does he feel compelled to help her? In fact, it didn't even need to be about her. Why does he feel compelled to help people, in general? Is it because he feels like he owes Jen his life? Is it because he subconsciously wants friends? Perhaps, he just wanted an excuse to hit the bad guys to feel some kind of catharsis he thinks is missing in rotten life?

This whole time, he had been looking at this question at a wrong angle. It was never about paying back the good done to him. Nor was it him taking out the bad guys. There was one logical answer...

"...Because it's the right thing to do." Ivan replies, looking at She Hulk eye to eye as he stands up straight while the Amazon in front of him places her hands on her hips.

"Heh. I dunno, Mr. 'Not A Hero'... That sounds like something a hero would say." Jennifer retorts, which almost annoys Ivan... until she smiles and offers a handshake. "Thanks."

Confused at first, Ivan manages to form his own smile, taking her hand and shakes it as the two keep eye contact.

"Oh dear. Ivan smiled. It must be the end of the world." Colleen teases, causing the entire crew except for Ivan himself and Jessica to laugh, annoying the red ring bearer.

"Shut it..." threatened Ivan.

While their laughter began to die down, Matt gets up from his spot and walks towards Ivan. "Ivan, our offer still stands. We really want you to be one of us. You're a superpowered person in a city that's not that kind to its people. It's best to stick together so you have a place to call home."

"Yeah. You don't have to do this alone, Red. You got us." Colleen adds to that as she too approaches the bleach blonde young man.

Ivan, at first, hesitatant, finally sighs and looks at his friends. "You guys are never gonna stop if I say 'No', huh?"

"Oh no, that's just them. I don't really care who joins us, so long as they can pull their own weight." Jessica teases Ivan, which earns her a glare from him. She responds with a shrug and attempts to drink again, but realizes too late that her bottle had run out of its contents. "Fuck..."

Ignoring her, Ivan looks back at the Heroes for Hire and Jennifer, taking a deep breath and says...

"I'm in."

* * *

Late at night, the prison van taking Carmilla away drives down the bridge leading towards the docks to put her into the high security prison island known as the Raft, an artificial landmass near Ryker's that's meant to hold superpowered and enhanced criminals in the United States. The facility has multiple underwater cell blocks, hi-tech steel windowless cells, two way relay video surveillance and even security that also have their own unique set of abilities and skills to match the prisoners they put away in there.

As expected, Carmilla is not exactly keen on the idea of staying there, but she doesn't exactly have a choice. Cuffed, disarmed of her weapons, including her stinger, and possibly outgunned by the security with her, who all seem to wear advanced suits of their own with the acronym "SHIELD"' on their chest plates, she'd likely be reduced into a wreck before she even enters the island's gates.

The toxic assassin then discards thoughts of trying to escape for now. She'll play along and once she's inside, she'll try and figure out a way to get out. A part of her, however, secretly wishes the Big Man would send some people to break her out.

But it was then that out of nowhere that their vehicle suddenly began shaking. "What the hell is going on?!" She asks out of panic. The agents ignored her as the vehicle shook again. Carmilla wanted to repeat the question but she doesn't get the chance when the vehicle shakes a third time, this time, far more violently before it eventually shakes the hardest at the fourth time, ending with the vehicle tumbling and crashing as everybody is knocked out, including Carmilla herself.

Opening her eyes, Carmilla had lost track of time. How long was she out? What happened? Her questions remain unanswered as she slowly regains her vision from blurriness. When her sight clears up, she looks up to see something she'd never thought to see today.

A strange, blue cat covered by the darkness of the vehicle they're in after all of its lights had been shut down due to the crash. Confused, Carmilla chooses to ignore the feline completely, and takes advantage of the guards taking her being unconscious after the crash.

However...

"...Guilty."

She heard in a raspy, almost animalistic tone, causing he to look around and see who said that. But no one was there but the cat. The guards are all knocked out. Did it come from outside?

"Who's there?!" Carmilla cries, looking around for any possible angle an enemy could come in from. The rear door? The driver or passenger door?

"...Judgement."

The same voice spoke, worrying Carmilla further. However, in the darkness of her crashes transport, something began glowing inside. Something red. Something... close by...

To her horror, she turns her head slowly as sweat continuously pours from her forehead...

...only to be met with the same cat, with its eye glowing bright read as dark red fire and black smoke leaks out of its mouth.

"...Punish..."

"Please... No!" Carmilla pleads but the cat did not change its expressions or actions, red napalm now dropping from its mouth like drool.

But the beast cared not, as the napalm dropping on the floor beneath it's feet glowed and reveals it bore the same symbol as the one on Ivan's ring.

"...Kill."

At blackness of the night, the agonizing, ear piercing screams of Carmilla Black echoes across the city as the smell of fire and ash scattered into the air.

"...I good kitty."

* * *

**To be continued...**


End file.
